TURKEY MAY BE WAITING AT EUROPE’S DOOR FOR 20 MORE YEARS
>From David Charter, in Brussels
The Times/UK
October 16, 2006
THE timetable for Turkey to join the EU appeared to slip yesterday
when José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission,
gave his most pessimistic view of the country’s progress towards
membership since formal talks began a year ago.
Senhor Barroso said that it could be up to 20 years before Turkey
joined. He was highlighting a slowdown in reforms as he prepared the
ground for a critical assessment report.
Turkey’s case has suffered blows in recent weeks, including last week’s
vote by French deputies to criminalise denial of the First World War
Armenian genocide, an event never recognised as such by Ankara.
While Senhor Barroso has made clear that this is not a criterion for
EU membership, he gave a clear signal that Turkey was failing to
meet formal demands that include guarantees for freedom of speech
and greater civilian control over the military. He told the BBC:
"We are concerned about Turkey because the pace of reforms is rather
slow from our point of view. I believe it would be great to have
Turkey if Turkey respects all the economic and political criteria.
"This is not yet the case. It is a country that comes from a different
tradition. There are efforts in the right direction but nowadays there
is news that is not encouraging in terms of them coming closer to us."
This was a warning to expect a bleak assessment by Olli Rehn, the
EU Enlargement Commissioner, who is due to give an update on Turkish
efforts to prepare for the 35 EU entry criteria on November 8.
When formal talks began with Ankara last year, Mr Rehn spoke of
"about ten to fifteen years timeframe" before conditions would be
right. Senhor Barroso has been reluctant to put his own target on
the process but yesterday showed how much Turkey’s case had slipped
in 12 months, saying: "We cannot expect Turkey to become a member in
less than 15 to 20 years."
His assessment will provoke fresh concern in Ankara, which is coming
under intense pressure to step up reform and, in particular, to
resolve its blockade of vessels from Cyprus.
A failure to do so before the end of the year could lead to a
suspension of the formal EU accession talks. But before a Turkish
general election next year Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Prime Minister,
is said to have refused to give any further concessions while Turkish
northern Cyprus remains unrecognised by the international community.
Mr Rehn spoke in the summer of the need to avoid a "train crash"
in Turkish accession negotiations. Austria and France want to hold
national referendums on further enlargement, adding to the hurdles
that Turkey must overcome.
Speaking before Senhor Barroso’s remarks, Mr Erdogan said yesterday
that Jacques Chirac, the French President, had expressed his regret
to him over the Bill. "Because of certain narrow-minded deputies,
the France we know as a country of liberties is forced to live with
this shame," Mr Erdogan said. The Bill, opposed by M Chirac’s party,
was approved at first reading by the National Assembly but without
government backing is unlikely to become law.
Turkish business and consumer groups have threatened to boycott
French products.
Miguel Ã~Angel Moratinos, the Spanish Foreign Minister, met his
Turkish counterpart yesterday for talks backed by the EU on resolving
the Cyprus issue.
Senhor Barroso is expected to tell Tony Blair at a meeting today that
the Commission recommends that EU states do not restrict immigration
from new members during a seven-year transition period, even though
they have the right.
Britain has said that there will be some restrictions after the
arrival of large numbers of Polish workers after Poland’s entry in
2004. Senhor Barroso said: "If you look at the past, there was a fear
that Spanish workers would be flooding all over Europe. You know
what happened? Exactly the opposite. I can tell that Poland can be
a new Spain in some years. The growth of these countries is really
impressive," he said.
–Boundary_(ID_5nkC21aVWMtw4JdpQoZdTw)–
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
