Commission to approve framework for Turkey talks

Euractiv, Belgium
June 29 2005

In Short:

The scheduled 29 June Commission approval of a negotiating framework
for Turkey will be the latest act in Ankara’s quest for EU membership
talks. However, upcoming elections in Germany may make this less
than certain.

Background:

Turkey’s decades-old quest for membership of the EU turns into the
finishing straight when on 29 June the Commission reveals its draft
road map for accession talks with Ankara. The document will set out
the principles, procedures and issues for the planned negotiations.

Issues:

The negotiating framework will have to be approved by all 25 EU
member states in order for talks to start on schedule on 3 October.
Following discussions at member state level, the national governments
are not likely to meet on the issue before September. Analysts point
out that the same month is likely to see elections in Germany. The
widely predicted election victory there of the conservative Christian
Democrats might muddy the waters since it would mean the replacement
at the country’s helm of the pro-Turkey Chancellor Schröder with the
CDU’s Angela Merkel, who believes that Ankara should not join the
Union as a full member.

Failure by the 25 member states to approve the road map may mean that
the 3 October date will have to be pushed back.

According to EU sources, the terms laid down in the Commission’s road
map for Turkey will be markedly tougher than those that applied to
the ten new member states that joined in 2004. In general, Turkey –
and also Croatia – will be expected to not only promise reforms but
also to implement them during the negotiations, which are expected
to last way over a decade.

The negotiating framework will also call on Ankara to “normalise”
its relations with all EU member states, including continued efforts
to reach a settlement in Cyprus, and to maintain good neighbourly
ties with neighbouring Armenia, Greece and the Kurds.

Positions:

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is firm in his stance
that Ankara will not renegotiate anything over its EU membership bid.
“If you impose new things on countries from one day to the next,
especially at a time when negotiations are about to start, that would
not be right. We are used to honest politics, that’s what we expect
and want,” he said.

In Erdogan’s opinion, “If they [the EU’s leaders] intend to preserve
the EU as a Christian union, they should say so. This would, of course,
mean the rejection of their current Constitution. We are here because
we see the EU as a union of common political values. If Turkey doesn’t
join, the EU will become an ineffective Christian group,” he said.

In a recent interview with the Italian daily La Repubblica, Commission
Vice President Franco Frattini said that “It would be a wrong choice
to break commitments. Then we’ll be sending a message the EU doesn’t
want the Islamic world. We’ve been calling on Turkey for years to
continue its reforms. […] Depriving Turkey of the opportunity to
start negotiations with the EU as scheduled is a mistake that we
should avoid,” said Frattini.

“We have to suspend enlargement at least until the institutions have
been modernised,” French Interior Minister and presidential hopeful
Nicolas Sarkozy has said. “Europe cannot enlarge indefinitely.”

“Sweden wants the start of membership talks with Turkey on 3 October
in accordance with the 17 December decision of EU leaders,” said the
speaker of the Swedish Parliament, Björn von Sydow.

In an article published by the German daily Bild, Polish President
Aleksandr Kwasniewski has said that it would be an “extremely narrow
policy” for the EU to close its doors on Turkey. “What will we say to
Ukraine, the Balkan countries and Turkey? How can we persuade these
countries to move ahead towards democracy and a free market economy?”
he queried in the article.

“We have to halt the negotiations with Turkey,” argued former
Commissioner Frits Bolkestein in the Belgian weekly Humo.

European Socialist Party President Poul Nyrup Rasmussen has told the
Austrian daily Der Standard that, with Turkey, “membership talks are
set to start on 3 October, and the date cannot be changed, but the
accession will surely be shifted to a later date […] A generation
has to pass. That is, 20 or 25 years need to pass, so by 2025 or 2030”.

According to Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, there will be no
delay in the opening of his country’s accession talks.

Latest & next steps:

On 29 June 2005, the Commission is scheduled to approve the negotiating
framework for Turkey By the end of September, the framework must be
approved by all 25 member states On 3 October 2005, accession talks
are scheduled to be opened with Ankara

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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress