Q&A: STUMBLING BLOCKS

The Daily Telegraph, UK
Oct 3 2005

After years of build-up, the launch of EU entry talks with Turkey in
Luxembourg should have been an occasion for celebration.

Why is Austria so against Turkey’s membership?

But Austria raised last-minute objections, and the EU only came
up with a last-minute offer for Ankara. We look at the main issues
of contention.

Q: What had caused the deadlock in talks?

A: Austria wanted to change the wording in the negotiating text to
make it clear that Turkey might have to settle for less than full
membership of the EU.

Q: Is there anything else which held up the talks?

There are two other issues of contention. Neither on their own are
holding up the talks, but they are being used by Austria and other
hostile countries as reasons for keeping Turkey out of the European
bloc.

Firstly, EU politicians have demanded that Turkey recognise the
killing of more than one million Armenians between 1915 and 1923
as genocide. Turkey refuses to do so, insisting the death toll was
much less, and that most people died inadvertently from starvation,
disease and exposure.

Secondly, Turkey’s unwillingness to recognise the Greek Republic of
Cyprus causes a problem because southern Cyprus is a member of the
25-nation bloc.

Q: Why is Austria so against Turkey’s membership?

A: Austria’s animosity towards Turkey goes back a long way. It began
with a failed attempt by the Ottoman army to storm Vienna in 1683.

Public opinion in Austria is also anti-Turk, and with general elections
looming the current government may be playing to the electorate. Eighty
per cent of Austrians don’t want Turkey in the EU.

Q: Can the Austrians alone spoil the talks?

A: Yes, because agreement on the opening of any EU expansion talks
requires unanimity.

Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, keeps pointing out that the
Austrians fully signed up to the exact terms of the Turkey enlargement
negotiations last December and again in June.

Q: So what’s changed?

A: Nobody’s quite sure, but there has been a hardening of views
in Vienna, based on two rejections of the EU draft constitution in
France and the Netherlands. The proposed membership of Turkey was
one of the reasons for the rejections.

Linked to this is Austria’s unhappiness that the EU has put enlargement
talks with Croatia (Austria’s close ally) on hold because Zagreb is
not co-operating in the hunting down of war criminals.

Q: So what does Austria want exactly?

A: It wanted to toughen the Turkey text, deleting a reference to
“full membership” as the EU’s shared objective of the talks and
amending that to a “privileged partnership”.

It also wanted to replace a reference to the “strongest-possible bond”
with Turkey to “an alternative bond”.

Finally, it wanted to harden up a clause which allows the EU to pull
the plug if it can’t “absorb” Turkey by the time the enlargement
negotiations end in about 10 years.

Q: What does Jack Straw say?

A: There is little room for concession on the first and second
requests, but there may be some leeway on the wording “absorption”.

But Mr Straw says the final text already clearly states that the
negotiations with the Turks are “an open-ended process, the outcome
of which cannot be guaranteed”.

Q: Isn’t that good enough for the Austrians?

A: Clearly not, but they are totally isolated. France and a few other
members have their doubts about Turkey, but all European states except
Austria agree talks should begin.

One reason given is that beginning the talks will send a positive
signal to the Middle East that the EU is not merely a “Christian club”.

Q: If the talks do go ahead, when will Turkey join the EU?

A: Even if the talks start on time, they will last 10 years, and
some countries, including Austria and France, will have referendums
on the outcome, which will almost certainly vote down the Turks.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress