1 January 2003

Greece took over the EU Presidency from Denmark.

The 10th year of the completion of the Internal Market was celebrated. For this occasion, the European Commission published a report entitled “10 Years Without Frontiers”.

11 January 2003

The 4th harmonization Package came into force with its publication in the Official Journal. This package has brought significant changes in 16 different Laws among which are Laws on Political Parties, Press and Associations.

23 January 2003

The 5th Harmonization Package came into force. This package included amendments to the Code of Criminal and Civil Procedure concerning retrial on the basis of European Court of Human Rights decision.

31January 2003

The Memorandum on the pre-accession financial aid programme for Turkey was signed between the European Commission and the Turkish government.

EU Troika visited Turkey.

1 February 2003

The Nice Treaty came into force.

5 February 2003

The text of the Accession Treaty for 10 candidates preparing to become a full member in 2004 was approved by the Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER).

13 February 2003

The negotiations for Stabilization and Association Agreement between EU and Albania started.

17 February 2003

The EU Greece Presidency organized an extraordinary EU Council Summit in Brussels in order to determine a common position of the European Union on Iraq.

21 February 2003

Croatia submitted its official application for EU membership to European Council Presidency.

24  February 2003

At the third EU-Morocco Association Council meeting, the decision on establishing sub-committees was accepted to strengthen bilateral relations within the framework of the Association Agreement.

1 March 2003

The Interim Agreement between EU-Lebanon entered into force.

9 March 2003

Malta organized a referendum for EU membership. Maltese voted “Yes” in the referendum.

13 March 2003

The 111th meeting of Turkey-EU Association Committee was held in Brussels.

19 March 2003

Turkey-EU  Joint Parliamentary Commission’s meeting was held in Brussels.

20 March 2003

The EU Council Summit was held in Lisbon. At this Summit, the priority objectives of the Lisbon Strategy reform and the specific measures to reach these objectives were agreed on. (20-21 March)

23 March 2003

A referendum on EU and NATO Membership was held in Slovenia.

26 March 2003

The European Commission presented the draft of the Accession Partnership Document and its suggestions for pre-accession financial assistance.

The European Commission  presented the draft of the Accession Partnership Document and its suggestions for pre-accession financial assistance. for Bulgaria and Romania.

Within the framework of EU- Mediterranean Cooperation, the Monitoring Committee of the EU-Barcelona Process gathered in Brussels. (26-27 March)

2 April 2003

Two loan agreements amounting to 350 million euro were signed between Republic of Turkey and the  European Investment Bank.

7 April 2003

The 14th meeting of EU-Turkey Joint Consultative Committee took place in Istanbul. (7-8 April)

9 April 2003

At the European Parliament session in Strasbourg, the accession of 10 candidates who had completed their negotiations for Copenhagen Summit held in December 2002 was confirmed.

12 April 2003

In a referendum, Hungarians voted in favor of Hungary’s accession to the European Union.

15 April 2003

The 42nd EU-Turkey Association Council Meetinh was held  in Luxembourg.  At the meeting, the European Union presented the revised Accession Partnership Document to Turkey.

19 April 2003

An EU Commission was established within the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. This Commission would follow up Turkey’s EU accession process. The Commission would also evaluate the draft laws submitted to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey in terms of its compatibility with the European legislation. The Commission was going to present its opinion to the specialized committees.

10 May 2003

In a referendum, Lithuanians voted in favor of Lithuania’s accession to the European Union. (10-11 May)

12 May 2003

At the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, the draft report prepared on Turkey by the Dutch Parliamentary Arie Oostlander was adopted after some significant amendments had been made.

17 May 2003

In a referendum, Slovenians voted in favor of Slovenia’s accession to the European Union. (17-18 May)

5 June 2003

The report prepared by the Dutch Parliamentary Arie Oostlander was adopted by the European Parliament’s General Assembly.

7 June 2003

In a referendum, Poles voted in favor of Poland’s accession to the European Union. (7-8 June)

12 June 2003

The Revised Accession Partnership Document prepared for Turkey came into force with its publication in the EU’s Official Journal (No. L 145).

13 June 2003

In a referendum, Czechs voted in favor of the Czech Republic’s accession to the European Union. (13-14 June)

14 June 2003

The Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus ratified the Accession Treaty.

16 June 2003

The 50th meeting of Turkey-EU  Joint Parliamentary Commission was held in Istanbul. Turkey-EU relations, the problems encountered during Turkey’s accession process, Turkey’s pre-accession strategy implementation as well as the cooperation between the European Parliament and the Grand National Assembly of Turkey were the main topics discussed at this meeting. (16-17 June)

19 June 2003

The EU Council Summit was held in Thessalonica. The EU Presidency was handed over from Greece to Italy. The candidate countries were also enabled to participate in the Summit as observers.  Turkey was represented by the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and by the Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül. (19-20 June)

21 June 2003

The EU-Balkan Summit was held in Porto Carras. At the Summit, the Balkan countries were ensured about membership perspective in the case they would fulfill the criteria for full membership.

15 August 2003

The 3^rd Pre-accession Economic Programme prepared by Turkey for the period of 2003-2006 was presented to the European Commission.

14 September 2003

In a referendum, Swedes voted against Sweden’s accession to the Economic and Monetary Union.

In a referendum, Estonians voted in favor of Estonia’s accession to the European Union.

20 September 2003

In a referendum, Latvians voted in favor of Latvia’s accession to the European Union.

4 October 2003

At the Intergovernmental Conference in Rome, the European Union started its work on the EU Constitution.

8 October 2003

The establishment of a Decentralized Organization that will manage efficiently the financial aids granted by the European Union has been approved. The responsibility of managing the EU financial aids has been thus handed to Turkey.

16 October  2003

The EU Summit was held in Brussels. Besides the 15 Member States of the European Union, the 10 candidate countries which were going to join the Union on the 1^st May 2004, as well as Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey participated also in the Summit as observers. (16-17 October)

28 October 2003

The 14th meeting of Turkey-EU Customs Union Joint Committee was held in Brussels.

5 November 2003

The European Commission published its 2003 Turkey’s Progress Report.

11 November 2003

The European Commission published a “White Paper” on European Space Policy.

12 November 2003

Turkey ratified the Protocol no:6 of the European Convention on  Human Rights concerning the abolition of the death penalty .

18 November 2003

The Intergovernmental Conference was held in Brussels. At the Conference, the future Minister of Foreign Affairs and the procedures for amending the future Constitutional Treaty were the main issues discussed.

20 November 2003

Two explosions occurred in Istanbul in front of the HSBC headquarter and British Consulate General.

25 November 2003

The Economic and Financial Affairs Council disregarded the Commission’s proposal to penalize France and Germany for violating the Stability and Growth Pact.  

With a directive regarding the status of non-Eu Member Country nationals who are long term residents, the European Union granted European resident status to non-EU member country nationals who had been residing legally and continuously within the territory of the Member States for five years.

28 November 2003

EU Foreign Ministers discussed the EU Constitution in Naples.

1 December 2003

At the EU Employment and Social Policy Council meeting, the Commission welcomed Council's agreement on reforming a Regulation on the application of social security schemes to workers moving within the Union.

2 December 2003

Turkey paid a compensation amounting to 1,1 million euro  to Loizidou, a citizen from Greek Administration of Southern Cyprus, after the ruling of the European Court of Human Rights in a  landmark legal case.

Turkey and Greece signed a bilateral agreement on the avoidance of double-taxation of income.

The 51^st meeting of EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Commission was held in Brussels. In the meeting, issues related to Turkey-EU relations such as Turkey’s progress report, the Strategy Paper and financial cooperation were discussed.

6 December 2003

The 6th Meeting of Europe-Mediterranean  Foreign Affairs Ministers was held in Naples. In this last meeting before the enlargement envisaged in May 2004, the political and economical expansions were discussed.

12 December 2003

The European Council Summit was held in Brussels. At this Summit, the main topics discussed were the economic growth, security and justice, enlargement and foreign affairs, common foreign and security policy as well as European Security and Defense Policy.

Parliamentary elections were held in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Four political parties entered to the fifty-seat Parliament: Turkish Republican Party (TRP) with 19 seats, National Unity Party (NUP) with 18 seats , Democrat Party (DP) with 7 seats and Peace and Democracy Party (PDP) with 6  seats.

16 December 2003

After the general elections in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, the NUP-DP government submitted its resignation to President Denktaş.