The British Council, Centre for European Reform (CER) and Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) are jointly organising the fifth Bosphorus Conference on EU-Turkey relations. This high-level, invitation-only conference will take place in Istanbul on 10-11 October 2008.

Among the participants of our previous four highly acclaimed conferences were Abdullah Gül, Ali Babacan, Mehmet Şimşek, Olli Rehn, Carl Bildt, Lord Kinnock, Geoff Hoon, Peter Mandelson, Joost Lagendijk, Lord Hannay, Ahmet Davutoğlu, Dominique Moïsi, Andrew Duff and many other senior figures to discuss the politics and economics of Turkish accession.

This year’s conference will open on the evening of 10 October with a gala dinner and the keynote speeches of ministers from Turkey and the EU. The main seminar on the 11th will emphasise frank, off-the-record discussion of some of the most important and controversial aspects of EU-Turkey relations. This year, we are planning to focus on the following issues: