EU BACKDOWN OVER TURKEY AS KEY REBELS LIFT THREAT OF VETO

Irish Independent
September 2, 2005

EU countries rebelling against the start of membership talks with
Turkey backed down dramatically last night.

Despite continuing opposition from Austria and Cyprus, neither country
threatened to veto the start of talks next month.

EU foreign ministers agreed they would put their own joint declaration
to the Turks, warning them that they must quickly move to open up
maritime and aviation routes to Greek Cypriot traffic.

Following increasingly acrimonious exchanges between Turkey and its EU
critics over the likelihood of it ever joining the EU, it now seems
that the vast majority of ministers accept existing commitments must
be met.

The formal start of accession talks will begin on October 3, although
it is not expected that Turkey could join the EU until 2013.

Austria has intensified its efforts to win support for an alternative
to full EU membership for Turkey. It argues that the poor Muslim
country of 62m people does not qualify to join.

Although the country’s foreign minister, Ursula Plassnik, stood by
this position yesterday, there was no attempt to veto the opening of
the negotiations.

The ministers effectively ignored earlier comments from the Turkish
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul who insisted his country’s refusal to
recognise Cyprus ahead of the reunification of the Turkish and Greek
communities had not changed.

France has also sounded increasingly sceptical, arguing that Turkey
should first fully recognise the Greek Cypriot regime.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, insisted that no country
had said ‘no’ to the opening of the talks. Irish Foreign Minister,
Dermot Ahern, also voiced broad support for Turkey. He argued that
new arguments shouldn’t be introduced to block the negotiations over
Turkey’s failure to formally recognise Cyprus.

The Turkish government, however, did its case no good yesterday with an
extraordinary decision to bring criminal charges against its foremost
writer Orhan Pamuk, who could face up to three years in prison for
comments made in a Swiss interview condemning the mass killing of
Armenians in the aftermath of World War One.

A Turkish public prosecutor said the comments violated the Turkish
penal code. On the Euro constitution, Jose Manuel Barroso, EU
President, caused a stir when he said he could see no way to bring it
back to life after its rejection. The EU was working well without it.

Officially, all 25 Union governments still support the constitution
and agreed only to “pause for reflection” while they decided how to
overturn the two ‘no’ votes and push ahead with ratification.

However, Senhor Barroso’s comments suggest that the pause for
reflection will simply be a prelude to burying the document.

He said in an interview with a Polish newspaper: “In the foreseeable
future we will not have a constitution. That’s obvious. I haven’t
come across any magic formulas that would bring it back to life.”

Conor SweeneyNewport, Wales