TVNZ, New Zealand
Sept 30 2005
Austria blocks EU Turkey agreement
Sep 30, 2005
Austria blocked European Union agreement on Thursday on a mandate to
start entry negotiations with Turkey next week, forcing EU foreign
ministers to call an emergency meeting for the eve of the talks to
seek a deal.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said it was possible
negotiations might not start on Monday as scheduled, although intense
efforts were continuing to solve what he called serious problems.
A 24-1 deadlock at a meeting of EU ambassadors means the vast, poor,
overwhelmingly Muslim candidate country will be kept on tenterhooks
until hours before Gul is due to fly to Luxembourg to open the talks.
Diplomats said Austria stuck to its demand that Turkey be offered an
explicit alternative to full membership if it failed to meet the
criteria for membership or if the EU was unable to absorb it –
something Ankara vehemently rejects.
Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel also insisted in newspaper interviews
that the EU open talks immediately with Croatia, Austria’s historic
ally and Roman Catholic neighbour.
Those negotiations were due to have started in March but have been
frozen because of Zagreb’s failure so far to satisfy a UN war crimes
tribunal of its cooperation.
“We are facing serious problems with the start of negotiations. We
are in intense negotiations,” Gul told a hastily arranged news
conference in Ankara.
Asked if there was a possibility that talks would not begin, Gul
said: “Undoubtedly there is but there are intense efforts … We
still have time to solve the problems.”
He said he would not go to Luxembourg until there was clarity on the
negotiating mandate.
A spokesman for EU president Britain said foreign ministers would
meet on Turkey on Sunday evening. He rejected any linkage with
Croatia’s candidacy, which he said would only be discussed on Monday.
Democracy
Austria demanded substantial changes that Britain had told the envoys
would require a political decision to go back on EU leaders’
unanimous agreement last December that the objective of the talks was
accession, diplomats said.
Schuessel, whose conservative Austrian People’s Party is battling to
avert defeat in regional elections in the province of Styria on
Sunday, said European politicians should learn from the failed EU
constitution votes in France and the Netherlands.
“Democracy means you have to listen to the demos,” he told the
International Herald Tribune.
His comments reflected strong public opposition in western Europe to
admitting Turkey, which opinion polls show 80% of his own electorate
opposes. Austria holds two other regional elections later in the
month after Sunday’s poll.
Gul did not comment directly on a non-binding European Parliament
resolution on Thursday that sought to pose new conditions unpalatable
to Ankara, including recognition of the 1915 killing of Armenians as
genocide.
But he said there were conditions Turkey could never accept and
members of the bloc were well aware of this.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan earlier said it was up to the
EU to demonstrate its good faith, underlining the strategic benefits
to Europe of embracing his country.
“If the EU is not a Christian club, this has to be proven,” the state
Anatolian news agency quoted Erdogan as saying.
“What do you gain by adding 99% Muslim Turkey to the EU? You gain a
bridge between the EU and the 1.5 billion-strong Islamic world. An
alliance of civilisations will start.”
Austria takes over the EU presidency from Britain in January and its
stance could jeopardise its relations with the United States, which
strongly backs Turkey’s accession process.
Schuessel accused European governments of applying double standards
to Turkey and another EU candidate, Croatia.
“If we trust Turkey to make further progress, we should trust Croatia
too … It is in Europe’s best interest to start negotiations with
Croatia immediately,” he told the Financial Times. “It is not fair to
leave Croatia in an eternal waiting room.”
Other EU countries say the start of talks with the former Yugoslav
republic depends on chief UN war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte
certifying that it is cooperating fully with her office in the hunt
for fugitive ex-general Ante Gotovina.