EU assures Turkey of membership prospects

The European Union told its Balkan neighbors and Turkey over the weekend that they remain on track for membership, saying it would open accession talks with Ankara on two more chapters before June. Speaking during an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Hluboka nad Vltavou, the Czech Republic, the bloc's Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said that talks on two chapters, taxation and social policy and employment, would be opened before Sweden takes over the presidency from the Czech Republic on June 1. In Saturday's meeting, the EU foreign ministers assured their counterparts from Turkey, Croatia and Macedonia and four other Western Balkan nations that the desire to bring them into the EU remains undiminished and that they remain on the membership path. "Enlargement is in the interest of Europe and the Balkans," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told reporters. "The basic message" to the Balkan nations and Turkey is that their membership prospects remain on track, Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb said before the meeting.