EU DEADLOCK OVER TURKEY’S BID LINGERS

Islam Online, Qatar
Sept 29 2005

If accepted as an EU member Turkey would become the bloc’s first
majority-Muslim nation. (Reuters)

BRUSSELS, September 29, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) –
The EU on Thursday, September 29, called an emergency meeting of
foreign ministers to try to end an impasse over Turkey’s entry talks,
as Austria insisted Ankara be offered less than full EU membership.

“The Austrians maintain their reservations about the negotiating
framework,” one EU official told Agence France- Presse (AFP), on
condition of anonymity.

“Their demands involve an alternative or interim solution to membership
should the EU be unable to integrate Turkey or should Turkey not
fulfill all the criteria,” he added.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has warned that he will turn his back
on the talks if the negotiating framework contains “any formula or
suggestion other than full membership”.

The European Parliament asked Ankara, in its session on September 27,
2005, to officially recognize the massacres that took place against
the Christian Armenians during the First World War and to further
recognize the Republic of Greek Cyprus, in a one-year period, after
officially starting accession talks, concerning Turkey’s membership
to the European Union.

Bandwagon

The European Parliament votes on accession talks with Turkey.

(Reuters)

There are growing signs that Vienna wants to use the Turkey issue to
boost Croatia’s hopes of starting delayed talks.

Despite official denials, some diplomats believe that Austria’s stance
on Turkey could be linked to Croatia’s hopes of starting EU talks,
which depend on Zagreb’s cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal,
reported AFP.

“If we trust Turkey to make further progress we should trust Croatia
too,” Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel suggested in an interview
in Thursday’s Financial Times newspaper.

“It is in Europe’s interest to start negotiations with Croatia
immediately” he added.

According to AFP, Austria has been a strong supporter of Croatia’s
efforts to join the bloc and four out of five Austrians oppose
Turkey joining.

The EU official said a special EU task force would meet early Monday
with Carla Del Ponte, the head of the UN war crimes tribunal in The
Hague, to discuss Croatia’s candidature.

That meeting would “probably be followed by a global decision on
Turkey and Croatia during the morning,” he affirmed.

A spokeswoman for the EU’s executive commission said the two
candidacies were not linked from its point of view, but noted: “The
EU is ready to start accession negotiations with Croatia immediately
once it has been established that full cooperation (with the tribunal)
is there,” reported AFP.

European Union leaders and Turkey agreed December 17, 2004, on the
terms on which Ankara will start membership talks with the bloc the
coming October.

Turkey, an official candidate since 1999, has been waiting to join
the euro bloc for decades but its efforts have stumbled over its
civil rights record.

The European Commission on October 6, gave, 2004 gave Turkey a green
light to start talks to join the European Union, but set a series of
tough conditions warning there was no guarantee of success.