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EU ministers agree to slow Turkey's membership talks
2006-12-11
European Union foreign ministers dealt a blow to Turkey's EU aspirations, agreeing to impose sanctions over Ankara's failure to respect its trade obligations to Cyprus. The Finnish presidency announced that the ministers had reached a "deal on a common EU position concerning Turkey's EU accession negotiations", which will see eight of 35 policy chapters in its membership talks frozen. "It doesn't mean that everybody agrees one hundred percent," said Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja after a day of intense negotiations. "The EU is still about making compromises." The eight frozen chapters all concern trade and external relations, but the ministers also criticised Turkey's human rights record, especially on freedom of religion and women's and minority rights. Any other policy chapters opened will not be concluded until Turkey fulfils its commitments. So far just one chapter has been successfully opened and closed. But an EU official said the stalled membership talks could resume quickly on other chapters. "This strikes the right balance and it's a very carefully calibrated solution," said EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn. The Union made the move following Ankara's repeated refusal to open its harbours and airports to Greek Cypriot ships and planes as it must do under a customs agreement with the 25-country bloc. "We have avoided a crisis over Turkey" at the summit of EU leaders starting on Thursday, beamed Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, as the ministers clinched the deal in defiance of all expectations. Turkey will study the announcement before taking a position, a foreign ministry spokesman in Ankara said. "We cannot say anything before studying the text," spokesman Namik Tan told AFP. "It has not yet been officially submitted to us." In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed the decision to slow membership negotiations with Turkey. "Wisdom prevailed," said her spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm. The talks ran all day amid deep divisions over Turkey's candidacy. In order to reach a deal the 25 also agreed to support UN efforts for a comprehensive solution to the problem of divided Cyprus. Also key to the deal was a revision proposal from Finland under which the European Commission would constantly monitor Turkey's progress on normalising trade ties with Cyprus. Annual reports will be issued, with special emphasis on 2008-2009, which an EU official explained would allow for Turkish elections next year. In contrast the EU presidency announced that fellow EU candidate nation Croatia, which began formal accession talks on the same day as Turkey in October 2005, had successfully negotiated a second chapter. "Each country makes progress on its own merits," said Rehn. Paradoxically the decision on Turkey could mean that the mired talks could resume swiftly on other policy areas, an EU source said. Cyprus and its ally Greece were the most vociferous in initially calling for harsher sanctions against Ankara but eventually fell in line. In an effort to avoid further angering Turkey, the ministers also agreed to discuss ending the isolation of northern Cyprus during ministerial talks next month. The Greek Cypriot government holding the southern two-thirds of Cyprus is internationally recognised as having sovereignty over the whole of the island but does not control the northern third, where a Turkish Cypriot government is recognised only by Ankara. No member state denies the geopolitical importance of encouraging reform in a mainly Muslim but secular country led by a moderate Islamic government which straddles Europe, the Middle East and the volatile Caucasus region. But Turkey's EU talks were always going to take at best a decade and membership is not assured. The biggest problem facing the ministers had been that questions of EU enlargement must, in almost all cases, be resolved with unanimous agreement.
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