ISTANBUL, TURKEY.- A Turkish girl passes in front of paintings during her visit to the Istanbul Modern Art Museum 15 December 2004. EU members are to meet 16 December 2004 to debate the most strategically important issue facing the bloc when they decide whether to open accession negotiations with Turkey. The stakes are high for the Muslim-majority country itself but also for several EU states such as France and Germany, where opposition parties are making political capital out of public hostility to Turkey's EU bid. Turkey is adamant that, fully five years after it was formally accepted as a candidate for EU membership, it has done enough to open the accession talks with no further strings attached.