1 January 2006

Austria took over the EU Presidency.

16 January 2006

Explanatory screening meeting on the "Free Movement of Goods"chapter was held. (16-20 January)

17 January 2006

The European Court of Human Rights in its decision regarding "return to village" in Turkey to struck application out of its list of cases and decided that similar cases should be referred to national jurisdiction

20 January 2006

Turkey submitted  a new action plan on solution of Cyprus issueto the Secretary General of UN Kofi Annan. Lifting the isolation on the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in return for opening Turkish ports to Greek Cypriots was among the actions included in the new plan.

23 January 2006

Explanatory screening meeting on the "Justice, Freedom and Security"chapter was held. (23-25 January)

Detailed screening meeting on the "Agriculture and Rural Development"chapter was held. (23-26 January)

31 January 2006

Explanatory screening meeting on the "Customs Union" chapter was held. (31 January - 1 February 2006)

6 February 2006

Explanatory screening meeting on the "Intellectual Property Law" chapter was held. (6-7 February)

8 February 2006

Explanatory screening meeting on the "Social Policy and Employment" chapter was held (8-10  February)

13  February 2006

Detailed screening meeting on the "Justice, Freedom and Security" chapter was held. (13-15 February)

16 February 2006

Explanatory screening meeting on the "Economic and Monetary Policy"chapter was held.

20 February 2006

Detailed screening meeting on the "Free Movement of Goods" chapter was held. (20-24 February)

24 February 2006

Explanatory screening meeting on the "Fisheries" chapter was held.

2 March 2006

Detailed screening meeting on the "Intellectual Property Law" chapter was held. (2-3 March)

6 March 2006

World Bank published a Report on Turkey.

9  March 2006

Explanatory screening meeting on the "Food Safety, Veterinary and Phytosanitary" chapter was held. (9-15 March)

13  March 2006

Detailed screening meeting on the "Customs Union" chapter was held. (13-14 March)

16 March 2006

The European Parliament adopted a resolution based on the own-initiative report drafted by Elmar Brok (EPP-ED, DE) on the Commission's 2005 enlargement strategy paper.

20 March 2006

Detailed screening meeting on the "Social Policy and Employment" chapter was held. (20-22 March)

23 March 2006

Detailed screening meeting on the "Economic and Monetary Policy" chapter was held.

27 March 2006

Turkey-EU Association Committee held its 114^th meeting. The parties exchanged views on Customs Union, the state of play in the accession negotiations and improving financial cooperation.

Explanatory screening meeting on the "Enterprise and Industrial Policy"chapter was held. (27-28 March)

29 March 2006

Explanatory screening meeting on the "Financial Services" chapter was held. (29-30 March)

31 March 2006

Detailed screening meeting on the "Fisheries" chapter was held.

3  April 2006

Explanatory screening meeting on the "Environment" chapter was held. (3-11 April)

12 April 2006

Istanbul was nominated as 2010 European Capital of Culture along with Essen (Germany) and Pecs (Hungary) by the Selection Pane.

Turkey's 9^th Reform Package was announced by Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül.

24 April 2006

Detailed screening meeting on the "Food Safety, Veterinary and Phytosanitary" chapter was held. (24-28 April 2006)

29 April 2006

In order to inform the Turkish civil society on the issues that were underlined during the screening meetings on the "Free Movement of Goods" and "Customs Union" chapters, a meeting was held.

2  May 2006

Detailed screening meeting on the "Financial Services" chapter was held. (2-3 May)

3  May 2006

56^th meeting of Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Committee was held in Ankara. No common declaration was adopted at the end of the meeting. (3-4 May)

4  May 2006

Detailed screening meeting on the "Enterprise and Industrial Policy"chapter was held. (4-5 May)

15 May 2006

Explanatory screening meeting on the "Energy" chapter was held. (15-16 May)

16 May 2006

Joint Monitoring Committee, which had been established to monitor and evaluate projects and programmes under the Turkey-EU financial cooperation, held its 4^th meeting in Ankara.

18 May 2006

Explanatory screening meeting on the "Financial Control" chapter was held.

29 May 2006

Detailed screening meeting on the "Environment" chapter was held. (29 May- 2 June)

6 June 2006

Explanatory screening meeting on the "Taxation" chapter was held. (6-7 June)

8 June 2006

Explanatory screening meeting on the "Consumer and Health Protection" chapter was held. (8-9 June)

12 June 2006

Turkey and the EU opened and provisionally closed accession negotiations on the "Science and Research" chapter.

45^th meeting of the EC-Turkey Association Council was held in Luxembourg.

Explanatory screening meeting on the "Information Society and Media" chapter was held. (12-13 June)

15 June 2006

The EU Council Summit was held in Brussels. (15-16 June)

19 June 2006

Explanatory screening meeting on the "Statistics" chapter was held. (19-20 June)

21 June 2006

Explanatory screening meeting on the "Company Law" chapter was held.

26 June 2006

Explanatory screening meeting on the "Transport Policy" chapter was held.(26-29 June)

30 June 2006

Detailed screening meeting on the "Financial Control" chapter was held.

Explanatory screening meeting on the "Trans-European Networks" chapter was held.

6 July 2006

Detailed screening meeting on the "Consumer and Health Protection"chapter was held. (6-7 July)

10 July 2006

Explanatory screening meeting on the "External Relations" chapter was held.

11 July 2006

Detailed screening meeting on the "Taxation" chapter was held. (11-12 July)

13 July 2006

Detailed screening meeting on the "Information Society and Media" chapter was held. (13-14 July)

17 July 2006

Detailed screening meeting on the "Statistics" chapter was held.(17-18 July)

19 July 2006

Explanatory screening meeting on the "Freedom of Movement of Workers" chapter was held.

20 July 2006

Detailed screening meeting on the "Company Law" chapter was held.

6 September 2006

The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) of the Council of Europe made public the report that it had prepared following its visit to Turkey in December 2005.

Explanatory screening meeting on the "Financial and Budgetary Provisons"chapter was held.

7 September 2006

Explanatory screening meeting on the "Judiciary and Fundamental Rights " chapter was held. (7-8 September)

11 September 2006

Detailed screening meeting on the "Freedom of Movement of Workers" chapter was held.

Explanatory screening meeting on the "Regional Policy and Coordination of Structural Instruments" chapter was held. (11-12 September)

13 September 2006

Detailed screening meeting on the "External Relations" chapter was held.

14 September 2006

Explanatory screening meeting on the "Foreign, Security and Defence Policy" chapter was held.

25 September 2006

Detailed screening meeting on the "Transport Policy" chapter was held. (25-28 September)

27 September 2006

The report by MEP Camiel Eurlings (EPP-ED, NL) on Turkey's progress towards accession was adopted by the European Parliament.

29 September 2006

Detailed screening meeting on the "Trans-European Networks" chapter was held.

4 October 2006

A report on the "cultural situation of the Kurds" was adopted by the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly.

Detailed screening meeting on the "Financial and Budgetary Provisons" chapter was held.

6 October 2006

Detailed screening meeting on the "Foreign, Security and Defence Policy" chapter was held.

9 October 2006

Detailed screening meeting on the "Regional Policy and Coordination of Structural Instruments" chapter was held. (9-10 October)

12 October 2006

Detailed screening meeting on the "Judiciary and Fundamental Rights"chapter was held. The screening process which had started on 20 October 2005 came to an end with the conclusion this last meeting. (12-13 October)

27 October 2006

The European Commission released 38.1 million euro in aid for infrastructural and economic development projects in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

8 November 2006

The European Commission published the 2006-2007 EU Enlargement Strategy Paper and 2006 Progress Reports on the candidate countries (Turkey, Croatia, Macedonia) and on the potential candidate countries (Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia).

13 November 2006

The EU Council endorsed the panel's recommendation to award Istanbul as the 2010 European Capital of Culture.

29 November 2006

The European Commission recommended not to open negotiations on eight chapters ("Free Movement of Goods", "Right of Establishment and Freedom to Provide Services", "Financial Services", "Agriculture and Rural Development", "Fisheries", "Transport Policy", "Customs Union" and "External Relations") and not to close provisionally any of the chapters until the Comission confirms that Turkey has fully implemented its commitments with respect to the Additional Protocol.

1 December 2006

Customs Union Joint Committee held its 18^th meeting.

5 December 2006

The 7^th "Weimar Triangle" meeting bringing together the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Jacques Chirac and the Polish President Lech Kaczynski was held in Mettlach, Germany. During the press conference following the meeting, Merkel declared that they are supporting the Commission's recommendation not to open negotiations on eight chapters.

7 December 2006

Turkey submitted proposals to the Finish EU Presidency regarding settlement of the Cyprus issue. The proposals included one year of the opening of a port and an airport to trade with South Cyprus, the comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus issue in 2007 under the UN auspices, opening of Magosa to external trade under Turkish management and opening of Ergani Airport to international flights.

10 December 2006

Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdullah Gül and Chief Negotiator Ali Babacan came together with the high level representatives of the public institutions to identify Turkey's road map to be followed during the accession process.

11 December 2006

During the meeting of the EU General Affairs and External Relations Council, the EU foreign ministers endorsed the European Commission's recommendation not to open negotiations on eight chapters and not to close provisionally any of the chapters until the Comission confirms that Turkey has fully implemented its commitments with respect to the Additional Protocol.

14 December 2006

The EU Council Summit was held in Brussels. The EU General Affairs and External Relations Concil's decision on Turkey's accession was integrated to the Presidency Conclusions without any modification. (14-15 December)

20 December 2006

COREPER reached an agreement to send an invitation letter calling on Turkey to prepare its negotiation position on the "Enterprise and Industrial Policy" chapter.