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Turkey's first step through the EU was the application for accession in 1959. EEC Council of Ministers has accepted the application and an association agreement named Ankara Agreement was signed between Turkey and EEC on the 12^th September 1963 and it has been in force since 1^st of December 1964 and will be in force until the membership criteria are fulfilled. Another important focus after this date is that Turkey applied for full membership before all the transition periods which was envisaged in the Ankara Agreement are over. The Commission denied the application claiming that the EEC did not completed its own integration but it was declared that Turkey was eligible to join the EU. In this context, Turkey completed its work by 1995 in order to participate in the Customs Union as foreseen in the Joint Protocol which entered into force in 1973 and the Customs Union between Turkey and the EEC was officially established on the 1^st of January 1996. After this date, Turkey's candidateship was officially announced in the EU Summit of Heads and State Governments which was held in Helsinki on 10-11 December 1999 and it was also stated that Turkey would have the same status as the other candidate countries. In the Brussels Summit which was held on 17 December 2004, it was stated that the negotiations between Turkey and EU could start. Finally, Negotiation Framework Document was accepted and the Accession Negotiations were officially started.

The Screening Process

The Accession Negotiations principally start with the screening process.

During the screening process which consists of analytical examination of the EU acquis, candidate countries are being informed in detail about the EU acquis and they indicate their level of alignment with the EU legislation. In the screening process which aims to prepare candidate countries for the negotiations and to give a momentum to the process before the accession, the differences between the EU acquis and the candidate country's legislation are identified and the possible problems during the alignment process is specified. This process in which the subjects of the chapters are set is also a period for the establishment of administrative structures and fortifying the existing structures for the implementation of the EU acquis.  

After the screening process, a screening report is prepared and presented to European Council by the Commission. The evaluations and suggestions presented in this report constitute a base for the opening of the negotiations for the relevant chapter. The Commission evaluates Turkey's preparatory level for the negotiations according to the information provided during the screening process and it proposes either opening of the chapter or it states the benchmarks to be met for this purpose.

In this context, among 35 chapters, 3 chapters are conducted by our Ministry:

Chapter 11: Agriculture and Rural Development

Chapter 12: Food Safety, Veterinary and Phytosanitary Policy

Chapter 13: Fisheries

Among these three chapters, only Chapter 12 is open for the negotiations and the others are suspended due to the decision of "full implementation of Additional Protocol" taken by EU General Affairs and External Relations Council during the Summit of 13-14 December 2006 and accordingly due to Turkey's reservation about recognizing Greek Republic of Southern Cyprus.

The process for the Chapter 11, 12 and 13 is shown on the table below: