EU ministers clash on ‘second-class Turkey’ fears
By Daniel Dombey in Brussels

FT
December 13 2004

European Union foreign ministers clashed over Turkey on Monday, with a
number of countries mounting a rearguard action against proposals they
fear could relegate Turkey to second-class status within the EU.

The meeting was to prepare for an EU summit on Thursday and Friday,
which is expected to take the decision to begin membership talks with
Ankara. The negotiations could last a decade.

But the UK, Italy and Belgium are worried about draft summit proposals
that suggest the EU consider preventing normal rules from coming into
force for any new member.

The proposals are part of the draft conclusions for the summit, which
say “long transition periods, derogations, specific arrangements or
permanent safeguard clauses may be considered” in such instances.

A senior European Commission official warned: “If the word
‘derogation’ appears, that really opens the door to a privileged
partnership rather thanfull membership.”

At Monday’s meeting, José Manuel Barroso, Commission president,
complained that the draft went much further than the Commission’s
official recommendation on Turkey, which suggested the EU could
consider safeguards on the movementof labour, to be implemented in
cases of economic instability.

Ankara, which has tried to deepen ties with the EU for four decades,
is hostile to any suggestion that negotiations could end with an
agreement short of full membership. But France, Austria and Denmark,
which support the proposals on safeguards, believe the EU has to leave
open the possibility of a fall-back agreement should the negotiations
stall.

Michel Barnier, French foreign minister, said the EU had to give
reassurances that Turkey’s membership was not preordained – though it
should begin negotiations with the aim of membership.

Mr Barnier also said France would seek Turkish recognition of killings
of Armenians between 1915 and 1923 as genocide, once accession talks
begin.

Although he made clear that such recognition was not a condition for
the start of talks, his remark drew an angry response from Turkish
officials, who have always denied genocide.

Croatia accession

Croatia could start talks to join the EU in the spring of 2005
provided it co-operates fully with war crimes investigators, EU
foreign ministers agreed on Monday, George Parker reports from
Brussels. The date for the start of talks will be finalised by EU
leaders at this week’s summit, but European diplomats said they could
begin as early as March.

Britain and some Nordic countries are reluctant to give Croatia a date
to start talks because they believe Zagreb has failed to honour
commitments tohand over all suspected war criminals.

Meanwhile Austria and Germany, historically close to Croatia, want the
Balkan state to join the union at the earliest opportunity.

Assuming Croatia proves it is working with the international war
crimes tribunal in The Hague, it could join the EU in either 2008 or
2009.

European leaders will have to agree on the question of who decides
whether Croatia is co-operating fully with the tribunal: the EU
itself, or the authorities in The Hague.

Ivo Sanader, Croatia’s prime minister, wrote to the EU’s 25 leaders
earlier this month urging them to give his country the green light to
start talks.

Responding to criticisms from chief war crimes prosecutor Carla del
Ponte, he said Croatia would co-operate with the tribunal “without
reserve, withholding or duplicity”.