EUROPE NEWS
OCTOBER 13, 2010
OCTOBER 13, 2010
By MARC CHAMPION
ISTANBUL—France's top diplomat told Turkey on Tuesday that "the ball is in your court" if it wants to rescue its troubled bid to join the European Union, underscoring the tough challenge Ankara faces as it pushes to revive stalled negotiations.
France is a key opponent of Turkey's membership in the 27-nation bloc and has helped slow negotiations that began in 2005. In a televised joint news conference Tuesday with his French counterpart, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu urged France to provide "active support" to accelerate the talks.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner promised to support Turkey in opening the three new areas of membership negotiations that it can. But he put the onus on Ankara to meet required conditions and made it clear that France hasn't changed its opposition to Turkey's ultimate membership.
ISTANBUL—France's top diplomat told Turkey on Tuesday that "the ball is in your court" if it wants to rescue its troubled bid to join the European Union, underscoring the tough challenge Ankara faces as it pushes to revive stalled negotiations.
France is a key opponent of Turkey's membership in the 27-nation bloc and has helped slow negotiations that began in 2005. In a televised joint news conference Tuesday with his French counterpart, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu urged France to provide "active support" to accelerate the talks.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner promised to support Turkey in opening the three new areas of membership negotiations that it can. But he put the onus on Ankara to meet required conditions and made it clear that France hasn't changed its opposition to Turkey's ultimate membership.
The French minister is the latest in a series of EU leaders to visit Turkey as Ankara launches a new push to revive the talks. Turkish leaders from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan down have become increasingly vocal in recent weeks in calling for the EU to unfreeze parts of the talks that have been frozen, arguing that Turkey is being unfairly discriminated against in a way that no previous candidate to join the EU has been.
Negotiations over the bid have broken down in large part over French opposition and objections from Cyprus over the continued closure of Turkish ports to Greek Cypriot ships. But broader fears among Europeans of mass migration by cheap Turkish labor have helped split the bloc over whether to admit a relatively poor, mainly Muslim nation of 73 million.
Ankara's push comes ahead of an annual progress report by the European Commission on Nov. 9 that could be tough on Turkey, and a decision by EU leaders in December on what action to take. Close observers say it would take a minor miracle for Ankara to succeed in getting the process unfrozen any time soon, while questioning the depth of Turkey's own commitment.
Some EU member states, as well as the U.S., believe that membership in the political and economic union would permanently anchor Turkey in the West and build a solid bridge with the Islamic world. Turkey has recently seen strong shows of support from Britain's new Conservative government and signals from part of Germany's ruling coalition that it is open to Turkish membership.
Turkey raised some eyebrows in the EU when it voted against United Nations Security Council sanctions aimed at reining in Iran's nuclear fuel program earlier this year. But any concerns that Turkey is drifting east appear to have done little to change positions on its EU membership.
Almost from their start in 2005, Turkey's membership talks ran into hurdles thrown up by a dispute with newly minted EU member Cyprus, which insisted Turkey meet a commitment attached to the talks that it open its ports to Greek Cypriot ships.
The bloc as a whole, and separately France and Cyprus, have so far blocked negotiations in 18 of the 35 areas on which agreement must be reached for Turkey to become a member—so-called negotiating chapters. These cover such points as free movement of goods, agriculture and financial services, three areas the EU has blocked, citing the ports dispute.
"If British Airways or Lufthansa starts flights to Ercan airport in Northern Cyprus, Turkey would then open her ports to Greek Cypriot planes and vessels," and so quickly unfreeze many of the blocked chapters, said Egemen Bagis, Turkey's top EU negotiator, in e-mailed responses to questions.
Close observers remain skeptical of any breakthrough. At a seminar Monday on Turkey's relations with the EU, part of a conference organized by the Istanbul-based Center for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies, there was little optimism about the future of Turkey's membership bid.
There is no sign of the EU moving to open up to Northern Cyprus, while Mr. Erdogan is unlikely to risk losing face by moving to open Turkish ports ahead of elections next June, said Katinka Barysch, deputy director of the Center for European Reform, a London-based think tank, attending the seminar. "I don't see any way out," she said.
Moreover, ordinary Turks are cooling on the EU. A recent survey by the German Marshall Fund found 38% of Turks favored joining the EU, down from 73% in 2004, in part due to resentment at opposition from countries such as France. Meanwhile, Europe's share of Turkey's trade has begun to fall and its lure has faded with the economic crisis.
European Commission officials say privately that Cyprus could block the remaining three chapters in December, and that they sense Turkey has little interest in incurring costs to meet conditions for the three chapters that remain available to open—Public Procurement, Competition Policy and Social Policy & Employment—knowing that the bid would then hit a wall in any case.
Mr. Bagis said Turkey is keen to open the remaining chapters and that Ankara aims to finish talks in 2013. If Turkey is instead rejected, he said, it would mean an end to the EU's goal of being a global-foreign policy actor, an increasingly unstable neighborhood for the EU, and "failure in the [Muslim] integration policies of several EU countries."
Write to Marc Champion at marc.champion@wsj.com
Negotiations over the bid have broken down in large part over French opposition and objections from Cyprus over the continued closure of Turkish ports to Greek Cypriot ships. But broader fears among Europeans of mass migration by cheap Turkish labor have helped split the bloc over whether to admit a relatively poor, mainly Muslim nation of 73 million.
Ankara's push comes ahead of an annual progress report by the European Commission on Nov. 9 that could be tough on Turkey, and a decision by EU leaders in December on what action to take. Close observers say it would take a minor miracle for Ankara to succeed in getting the process unfrozen any time soon, while questioning the depth of Turkey's own commitment.
Some EU member states, as well as the U.S., believe that membership in the political and economic union would permanently anchor Turkey in the West and build a solid bridge with the Islamic world. Turkey has recently seen strong shows of support from Britain's new Conservative government and signals from part of Germany's ruling coalition that it is open to Turkish membership.
Turkey raised some eyebrows in the EU when it voted against United Nations Security Council sanctions aimed at reining in Iran's nuclear fuel program earlier this year. But any concerns that Turkey is drifting east appear to have done little to change positions on its EU membership.
Almost from their start in 2005, Turkey's membership talks ran into hurdles thrown up by a dispute with newly minted EU member Cyprus, which insisted Turkey meet a commitment attached to the talks that it open its ports to Greek Cypriot ships.
The bloc as a whole, and separately France and Cyprus, have so far blocked negotiations in 18 of the 35 areas on which agreement must be reached for Turkey to become a member—so-called negotiating chapters. These cover such points as free movement of goods, agriculture and financial services, three areas the EU has blocked, citing the ports dispute.
"If British Airways or Lufthansa starts flights to Ercan airport in Northern Cyprus, Turkey would then open her ports to Greek Cypriot planes and vessels," and so quickly unfreeze many of the blocked chapters, said Egemen Bagis, Turkey's top EU negotiator, in e-mailed responses to questions.
Close observers remain skeptical of any breakthrough. At a seminar Monday on Turkey's relations with the EU, part of a conference organized by the Istanbul-based Center for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies, there was little optimism about the future of Turkey's membership bid.
There is no sign of the EU moving to open up to Northern Cyprus, while Mr. Erdogan is unlikely to risk losing face by moving to open Turkish ports ahead of elections next June, said Katinka Barysch, deputy director of the Center for European Reform, a London-based think tank, attending the seminar. "I don't see any way out," she said.
Moreover, ordinary Turks are cooling on the EU. A recent survey by the German Marshall Fund found 38% of Turks favored joining the EU, down from 73% in 2004, in part due to resentment at opposition from countries such as France. Meanwhile, Europe's share of Turkey's trade has begun to fall and its lure has faded with the economic crisis.
European Commission officials say privately that Cyprus could block the remaining three chapters in December, and that they sense Turkey has little interest in incurring costs to meet conditions for the three chapters that remain available to open—Public Procurement, Competition Policy and Social Policy & Employment—knowing that the bid would then hit a wall in any case.
Mr. Bagis said Turkey is keen to open the remaining chapters and that Ankara aims to finish talks in 2013. If Turkey is instead rejected, he said, it would mean an end to the EU's goal of being a global-foreign policy actor, an increasingly unstable neighborhood for the EU, and "failure in the [Muslim] integration policies of several EU countries."
Write to Marc Champion at marc.champion@wsj.com
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