1 January 2005

Luxembourg took over the EU Presidency.

2 January  2005

The European Parliament  approved the EU Constitution.

15 February 2005

Independent “European Commission against Racism and Intolerance” (ECRI) established by the European Council published “Third Turkey Report” which was adopted on the 25th June 2004.

Kyoto Protocol entered into force with the approval of 140 countries and EU. The United States and People’s Republic of China have not signed the protocol.

23 February 2005

The 53rd meeting of Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Commission was held in Strasbourg. (23-24 February)

28 February 2005

The 16th meeting of Turkey-EU Customs Union Joint Committee took place in Brussels.

2 March 2005

Eurobarometerpublished its first report on Turkey. According to the report, the most important expectationa of Turkish citizens from EU membership were  the economic prosperity and the fight against unemployment.

 7 March 2005

The EU-Turkey Troika meeting was held in Ankara. The relations between Turkey and EU were reviewed during the meeting, especially within the framework of Turkey’s compliance with political criteria.

17 March 2005

Turkey-EU Association Committee meeting was held in Brussels.

 22 March 2005

The European Council Spring Summit was held in Brussels. The Stability and Growth Pact, mid-term review of the Lisbon Strategy, sustainable development, climate change, the establishment of International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), UN Summit Preparations which was going to take place in September 2005 were the main topics discussed during this summit. (22-23 March)

 1 April 2005

Women’s Rights and Gender Mainstreaming Committee of  the European Parliament released a draft report about the women’s role on social, economic and political activities. In the draft report, it was required that the Turkish government and the European Commission should support more the NGOs in Turkey which operate in the field of women’s rights.

6 April 2005

The European Commission adopted the last package which contained detailed recommendations relating to 2007-2013 Financial Framework.

Italy became the first country ratifying the EU Constitution through its Parliament. The constitution was approved with 217 votes against 16. The text was previously approved by the Italian lower house.

19 April 2005

The Greek Parliament approved the EU Constitution with the 268 affirmative against 17 rejection votes.

25 April 2005

Romania signed the Accession Treaty in Luxembourg.

26 April 2005

The 44th meeting of Turkey-EU Association took place in Luxembourg. At this meeting, the reforms undertaken by Turkey and the inclusion of the Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus within the Customs Union were discussed.

3 May 2005

Committee of Ministers of the European Council adopted three new conventions. These conventions aim to increase cooperation between member states in the fight against terrorism and human trafficking.

During his visit to Turkey, the German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder evaluated Turkey’s EU membership process and he reminded that he was supporting Turkey’s membership to the European Union. (3-5 May)

5 May 2005

The EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn made a speech in the Forum on “Vision 2023: EU Membership of Turkey and the Establishment of the Competitive Global Information Society” and he stressed the collective effort in this reform process. (5-6 May)

11 May 2005

The Slovakian Parliament accepted the EU Constitution by a large majority.

16 May 2005

The Summit meeting of Heads of State and Government of the Council of Europe took place in Warsaw. At the end of the Summit, a political declaration and an Action Plan introducing the principal tasks of the Council of Europe in the coming years were adopted. (16-17 May)

19 May 2005

The Belgian Parliament ratified the EU Constitution. It was approved in the House of Representatives with 118 affirmative against 16 rejection votes and 1 abstained from voting.

25 May 2005

After the voting in lower part of the Austrian Parliament on May, the Parliament ratified the EU Constitution.

27 May 2005

The upper house of the German Parliament ratified the EU Constitution.

29 May 2005

The EU Constitution was rejected by 55% in France by referendum.

1 June 2005

The EU Constitution was rejected by 61,6% in the Netherlands by referendum.

With the new Turkish Penal Code entering into force and  bringing fundamental changes to the Turkish Penal System, an important step has been made in the process of EU harmonization process.

3 June 2005

Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Babacan was appointed as Turkey’s EU Chief Negotiator.

5 June 2005

After the referendum, Switzerland adopted the Schengen Agreement that envisaged the removal of passport controls within EU internal borders. It was expected that Switzerland will enter to Schengen area in 2008.

13 June 2005

EU Foreign Ministers approved the Additional Protocol that extends the Ankara Agreement to new Member States including the Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus. At the signature stage, Turkey  announced its reservation to the effect that Turkey does not recognize South Cyprus who took place as “Republic of Cyprus” in Protocol.

16 June 2005 

The Summit of EU Heads of the Government and State took place in Brussels. There were no statements made regarding Turkey in the Summit Final Declaration.(16-17 June)

29 June 2005

European Commission published “the Negotiation Framework Document for Turkey”. The Document contained the general principles governing the negotiations, the content of the negotiations, negotiation procedures and draft list relating negotiation chapters as well. Moreover, “The Statement Relating to Dialogue between Civil Societies” prepared by the European Commission was also published within the “Negotiation Framework Document”. This statement stressed the need to reinforce the dialogue between both sides since the European Union and the Turkish societies still not know each other well enough.

1 July 2005

UK took over the EU Presidency from Luxembourg.  The priorities of UK were the financial perspective and the fight against terrorism.

6 July 2005

The report entitled “Participation of Women in the social, economic and political activities in Turkey” prepared by Emine Bozkurt, a Dutch member of the European Parliament was approved by the General Assembly of the European Parliament.

18 July 2005

The Council of EU Foreign Ministers met in Brussels. The priority item of the meeting’s agenda was the terrorist attacks in London. In addition, Commissioner in charge of Enlargement Olli Rehn submitted the Commission’s proposal to the Council concerning the framework of Turkish accession negotiations. However, since the protocol which would extend the Additional Protocol to ten new members had not been yet signed,  it was agreed the framework would be discussed  on Informal meeting of the General Affairs and External Affairs Council in September 2005.

30 July 2005

Turkey signed the Additional Protocol that expands the Ankara Agreement signed in 1963 - constituting the legal basis of Turkey-EU relations- to the 10 new member states which joined the EU on the 1^st May 2004. Turkey however declared that this Act does not amount to recognition of the Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus on its part.

21 September 2005

“EU Counter Declaration related to Cyprus’ which was accepted on the 21st September 2005 in the meeting of EU Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER) was approved by the Council. The Commissioner  in charge of Enlargement Olli Rehn declared that counter declaration was fair and balanced, and he also reminded that negotiation framework document would provide the basis to start accession negotiations. In the declaration, it was indicated  that the implementation of the Customs Union would be evaluated in 2006 and the course of negotiations would be determined by this review.

3 October 2005

At the meeting held in Luzembourg, the EU Foreign Ministers agreed to start accession negotiations with Turkey.  At the press conference, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül said that starting of negotiations between Turkey and EU was a historic event not only for the European Union but also for the region and the world as well as Turkey.

Since the EU Foreign Ministers found out that Croatia fully cooperates with the Court, they decided to start negotiations with Croatia as well.

12 October 2005

The State Minister and Chief Negotiator Ali Babacan held a press conference and gave information on the screening and negotiation process and on the delegation which was going to be in charge of conducting these negotiations. There are five institutions which will monitor to 35 chapters of the acquis communautaire:  the Undersecretaries of Prime Ministry, Secretariat General for EU Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the State Planning Organization and the Permanent Representation of Turkey to the EU. 

20 October 2005

The first stage of EU accession negotiations commenced, the screening process started with detailed screening on the field of “Science and Research”.  A Turkish delegation composed of 30 representatives of Foreign Ministry, Ministry of National Education, Scientific and Technological Research Institution of Turkey, Presidency of the Council of Higher Education, Turkish Atomic Energy Authority, and Industry and Commerce Ministry along with a Croatian delegation participated at the meeting.

25 October 2005

The “Athens process” which started by the European Commission in 2002 with the aim of creating a regional energy market in South Eastern Europe came to an end with the signature of the Energy Community Treaty. The treaty signed between 34 European countries constitutes the largest common energy market in the world.

26 October 2005

The screening meeting related to the chapter of “Education and Culture” was held. A delegation of 38 officials composed of the EU Commission representatives and of Turkey’s Prime Ministry, Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of National Education, Ministry of Labor and Social Security, Culture and Tourism Ministry.

9 November 2005

The EU Commission published the 2005 Progress Report and Accession Partnership Document for Turkey.

10 November 2005

The Grand Chamber of European Court of Human Rights announced its decision related to case submitted by Leyla Şahin who stated that her education right was prevented and religious freedom was restricted due to the ban on headscarves at the universities. The final decision of European Court of Human Rights ruled that the headscarf ban is not against the law.

23 November 2005

The meeting of Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Commission was held in Brussels. After the beginning of the negotiation process in the first meeting, the main topics discussed were the freedom of expression, women’s rights, minority rights, the Cyprus issue, the fight against torture and ill-treatment, union rights and Southeast problem.

28 November 2005

The 20th meeting of Turkey-EU Joint Consultative Committee took place in Brussels. The main topics discussed during this meeting were trade union rights and dialogue among civil societies. During the meeting, the need to pursue reforms in areas such as freedom of expression, women’s rights, religious freedom, torture and ill-treatment was also stressed. (28-29 November)

 13 December 2005

The 17^th meeting of EU-Turkey Customs Union Joint Committee took place in Ankara. During the meeting, information regarding the trade between Turkey and EU was given. Moreover various topics such as agricultural trade, common trade policy, free movements of goods and mutual recognition principle, state aids, bilateral trade issues, trade in textile products, trade with Cyprus, participation to technical committees were among the main titles discussed.

15 December 2005

The budget covering the period 2007-2013 was the most important  item on the agenda of the European Council Summit. The EU leaders have agreed on the budget. A total amount of 862.363 billion Euro was foreseen for the budget, representing 1,045% of Member States’ national incomes. (15-16 December)