BRUSSELS (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, both Turkish and EU representatives participated in the accession conference.
"Today we will open the 16th chapter in the EU accession negotiations with Turkey. This is chapter 33 on financial and budgetary provisions. All EU member states have agreed to open this chapter," Koenders said at the conference.
He added that the European Commission had advised that Ankara was ready to open the negotiation on the chapter number 33 and during the morning conference the chapter was opened.
Turkey applied to join the European Union in 1987. Negotiations on its accession to the bloc began in 2005. Since 2005, 15 chapters out of the 35 required to join the bloc have been opened in the accession process up until that time.
