L 51/4 Official Journal of the European Union 26.2.2008 (Acts adopted under the EC Treaty/Euratom Treaty whose publication is not obligatory) DECISIONS COUNCIL COUNCIL DECISION of 18 February 2008 on the principles, priorities and conditions contained in the Accession Partnership with the Republic of Turkey and repealing Decision 2006/35/EC (2008/157[EC) THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 390/2001 of 26 February 2001 on assistance to Turkey in the framework of the pre-accession strategy, and in particular on the estab- lishment of an Accession Partnership ('), and in particular Article 2 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission, Whereas: (1) Regulation (EC) No 390/2001 provides that the Council is to decide, by a qualified majority and acting on a proposal from the Commission, on the principles, prio- rities, intermediate objectives and conditions contained in the Accession Partnership, as it will be submitted to Turkey, as well as on subsequent significant adjustments applicable to it. (20 On that basis the Council adopted an Accession Part- nership with Turkey in 2001 and 2003 (3. (3)  The Commission’s 2004 recommendation on Turkey stressed that the European Union should continue the monitoring of the political reform process and that a () O] L 58, 28.2.2001, p. 1. (%) Decision 2001/235/EC (O] L 85, 24.3.2001, p. 13) and Decision 2003/398[EC (O] L 145, 12.6.2003, p. 40). revised Accession Partnership should be proposed in 2005. Following that, the Council adopted a revised Part- nership in January 2006 (%). (4)  In December 2004 the European Council concluded that the European Union would continue to monitor closely progress of the political reforms on the basis of an Accession Partnership setting out priorities for the reform process. (5)  On 3 October 2005 the Member States started nego- tiations with Turkey on its accession to the European Union. The progress of the negotiations will be guided by Turkey’s progress in preparing for accession, which will be measured, inter alia, against the implementation of the Accession Partnership, as regularly revised. (6) The Commission’s Communication on Enlargement Strategy and Main Challenges 2006-2007 indicated that the Partnerships would be updated at the end of 2007. (7)  On 11 December 2006 the Council agreed that the Member States within the Intergovernmental Conference would not decide on opening eight chapters covering policy areas relevant to Turkey’s restrictions as regards the Republic of Cyprus, nor would they decide on provi- sionally closing chapters, until the Commission verified that Turkey had fulfilled its commitments related to the Additional Protocol. () Decision 2006/35/EC (O] L 22, 26.1.2006, p. 34).