AMBASSADORS FAIL TO AGREE FRAMEWORK FOR TURKEY ENTRY TALKS

AKI, Italy
Sept 29 2005

Brussels, 29 Sept. (AKI) – Just four days before Turkey is due to
begin membership talks with the European Union, ambassadors from
the 25-member bloc have failed to agree on a definitive framework
for the negotiations. Austria refused to give its go-ahead unless
the official negotiating framework includes the possibility that
‘privileged partnership’ may be the outcome of the talks rather than
full membership.

Britain, the current EU president, has convened a meeting of the 25
EU foreign ministers on Sunday to try to find a way forward.

Thursday’s impasse follows Wednesday’s slight to Turkey when the
European Parliament’s approved a resolution in which it supports
the start of membership talks with Turkey but lays down a series of
provisos. The parliament said recognition of the killing of more
than a million Armenians in 1915 as genocide was “a prerequisite
for accession”.

Euro-MPs also postponed a vote on extending Turkey’s customs
agreement to the ten newest member states because of Ankara’s refusal
to recognise Cyprus. The parliament’s decisions do not affect the
start of entry talks on 3 October, but are seen as a further sign of
European reluctance towards Turkey’s bid. The European Commission,
the EU’s executive arm, described the postponement of an important
vote on the trade agreement as “an own goal”.

The decision was motivated by Turkey’s recent declaration that
signing the protocol of the Ankara Agreement did not mean any form
of recognition of Cyprus, which became an EU member last May. Turkey
also refuses to admit naval vessels and airplanes from Cyprus.

The “privileged partnership” for Turkey being pushed by Austria
is also viewed positively by the German centre-right leader Angela
Merkel, while Ankara insists that nothing short of full membership
is acceptable.