GERMANY INTERESTED IN TURKEY’S EUROPEAN ORIENTATION

PanARMENIAN.Net
27.06.2007 18:35 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Turkey criticized the European Union on Tuesday for
refusing to extend membership talks to the politically sensitive area
of economic and monetary policy, saying it hoped for progress soon.

The EU opened talks with Turkey on two new policy areas — statistics
and financial control — a move that German Foreign Minister
Frank-Walter Steinmeier said proved Ankara’s accession bid was and
would remain on track. "Turkey is a bridge between Europe and Near
East, that is why we are interested in European orientation of this
state," he said.

France prevented the start of negotiations on economic and monetary
policy to underline new President Nicolas Sarkozy’s opposition to the
goal of eventual EU membership for Turkey. Turkish Economy Minister
and chief negotiator Ali Babacan told a news conference: "We are not
satisfied with the technical justifications that were given to us
and we hope that there will be progress in this matter during the
Portuguese presidency (of the EU in the second half of this year)."

Babacan said the EU’s relations with Turkey, a secular, largely Muslim
country, were being closely watched by the rest of the world. If
the EU failed to keep the objective of eventual Turkish membership
in the talks, he said, "not only Turkey but the EU as well will
be damaged from this, at a scale beyond its frontiers and even at
global proportions".

The EU was keen to stress that the opening of two chapters proved
membership talks were proceeding.

"This is quite significant progress, and the process is well on track,"
said Steinmeier, who chaired the talks and whose country currently
holds the rotating EU presidency.

Turkey has already opened and closed talks with the EU on science,
and opened talks on industry. EU legislation is divided into 35
policy areas and there are as many chapters of talks. While EU
officials sought to play down the setback over economic and monetary
policy as a technical hiccup, Turkish analysts said it was a more
serious blow to Ankara’s long-term membership aspirations.European
Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said in a speech that it was
of paramount importance that last week’s EU summit had agreed the
terms for a reform of EU institutions to cope with recent and future
enlargements. He welcomed the fact that the mandate for a new treaty
had included a reaffirmation of the EU’s openness to further members,
while vowing to take account of the conditions of eligibility agreed
upon at a summit last December.

Rehn said the EU was sticking to its commitments to Turkey, Croatia
and the rest of the Western Balkans.

In an apparent response to Sarkozy’s call for the EU to discuss its
final borders at a summit in December, he compared Turkey’s accession
process with Texas joining the United States. It took more than a
century — and a civil war — for the United States to agree on the
role of a federal government, and even longer to develop a set of
institutions, Rehn said, Reuters reports.