Turkey now a candidate on the same basis as any other nation

Turkey has accepted the European Union offer of candidate status for membership, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security, Mr Javier Solana said in Ankara late last night. "We have a yes," Mr Solana said after meeting the Turkish Prime Minister, Mr Bulent Ecevit.

"The prime minister will be at Helsinki midday tomorrow," for a lunch hosted by EU leaders at the end of the EU's two-day summit in the Finnish capital, Mr Solana said.

"This is a very, very happy day that opens a new page in the history of our relations," the EU representative said. "And I think it is also a happy day for us."

Mr Solana and his delegation, which included the EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Mr Gunther Verheugen, arrived in Ankara yesterday in a hastily-organised visit to convince Turkey to accept the EU decision on candidacy.

Turkey had held back its answer to the EU decision for hours, discontent with the formulation of its candidate status, especially with regard to its disputes with neighbouring Greece in the Aegean Sea and the EU's stance on the divided island of Cyprus.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, said the decision was a major achievement for the Finnish presidency. He also paid tribute to the Greek Prime Minister, Mr Konstantinos Simitis, and Foreign Minister, Mr George Papandreou, for their statesmanship in trying to reconcile differences with Turkey.

The European Council reaffirmed "the inclusive nature of the accession process, which now comprises 13 candidate-states within a single framework". Turkey is a "candidate-state destined to join the Union on the basis of the same criteria as applied to the other candidate-states" - the first time this has been said so explicitly.

Matters that might be interpreted in Ankara as conditions are presented in universal terms applying to all accession states.

Thus the document "stresses the principle of peaceful settlement of disputes in accordance with the UN Charter and urges candidate-states to make every effort to resolve any outstanding border disputes and other related issues". Failing this, "they should within a reasonable time bring the dispute to the International Court of Justice". The summit welcomed the launch of talks aimed at a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem at the UN in New York last week and said a political settlement would "facilitate the accession of Cyprus to the European Union".

The statement welcomed re cent positive developments in Turkey and referred to the need to meet political criteria for accession, "with particular reference to the issue of human rights".