BRUSSELS
Turkey is conducting important negotiations with Sweden, which is one of the countries most supportive of Turkey’s EU accession, Turkey’s chief EU negotiator Volkan Bozkir said on Thursday.
Bozkir met with Sweden’s Parliament Speaker Urban Ahlin at the parliament in Stockholm. Bozkir also met with Sweden’s foreign minister Margot Wallstrom.
''We spoke about the solution to the Cyprus problem and its impact on Turkey’s EU accession,'' Bozkir said. "Sweden seems ready to make an effort to provide all kinds of help and to start the negotiations about the island again."
The Greek Cypriot administration's attitude is still a major political obstacle to Turkey's accession to the EU.
Parts of the procedure for Turkey's EU accession, Chapter 23 on Judiciary and Fundamental Rights and Chapter 24 on Justice, Freedom and Security are still politically blocked by the Greek Cypriot administration despite the EU Commission’s and Parliament’s call for opening them.
Negotiations between Turkish and Greek-Cypriots resumed after a two-year pause in February 2013. The previous round of talks had collapsed partly because of the Eurozone debt crisis.
However, the Greek Cypriot administration suspended the most recent talks on Oct. 7 after Turkey sent a ship to explore for oil and gas off the coast of the island.
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