Division 3 PRIORITIES

The priorities listed in this Accession Partnership have been selected on the basis that it is realistic to expect that the country can complete them or take them substantially forward over the next few years. A distinction is made between short-term priorities, which are expected to be accomplished within one to two years, and medium-term priorities, which are expected to be accomplished within three to four years. The priorities concern both legislation and the implementation thereof.

The revised Accession Partnership indicates the priority areas for Turkey’s membership preparations. Turkey will, nevertheless, ultimately have to address all the issues identified in the progress reports, including consolidating the political reform process in order to guarantee its irreversibility and ensure its uniform implementation throughout the country and at all levels of the administration. It is also important that Turkey fulfil the commitments of legislative approximation and implementation of the acquis in accordance with the commitments made under the Association Agreement, Customs Union and related decisions of the EC-Turkey Association Council, for example on the trade regime for agricultural products.