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dezembro 16, 2004
Turkey: This is the moment... but EU goes back in the fridge if EU terms are too tough
Fonte: The Times
Turkey: This is the moment... but EU goes back in the fridge if EU terms are too tough
By Anthony Browne, Brussels Correspondent
Yes, yes, yes: MEPs voting yesterday to open membership talks - but the Turkish Prime Minister is still threatening to walk away (VINCENT KESSLER / REUTERS)
TURKEY gave warning yesterday that it would abandon its 40-year dream of joining the European Union if it is presented with unacceptable conditions by EU leaders at a dinner in Brussels tonight.
In an apparent last-minute attempt to soften entry conditions, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, said that he could modernise his country without the EU. He made the statement just as the European Parliament voted to let Turkey join the EU, and José Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission, said: “This is the moment.”
Tony Blair and his counterparts in the European Council are almost certain to approve starting entry talks with Turkey tonight. However, they are set to include a series of conditions to appease the deep misgivings in many member states about letting such a large, poor, Muslim and mainly Asian country become the biggest member of the Union.
France and Austria are demanding that entry talks should not necessarily lead to full membership, while EU leaders have already agreed that Turks could be permanently barred from the right to live and work in EU countries, a right given to other EU citizens. Turkey will also be required to reach a deal on Cyprus, and officially recognise the Cypriot Government.
Almost unanimous agreement has been reached between member states. A British official said last night: “It’s within grasp, but not in the bag. We are almost there, but not there.”
However, Mr Erdogan dramatically upped the stakes in unusually forthright language, saying as he left for Brussels: “We do not expect any unacceptable conditions to be put before us, but if such conditions are imposed . . . we will definitely put the matter in the refrigerator and continue on our way.”
Asked whether it would make a difference to the final hours of negotiations, the British official said: “It’s a factor. It’s going to be on people’s minds; of course it is.”
Turkey is particularly annoyed at the demand for a “permanent” safeguard against Turkish immigration to Western Europe, and at the suggestion that entry talks — which are expected to last ten years — may end only in a “privileged partnership” and not full membership.
Wolfgang Schüssel, the Austrian Chancellor, insisted that the EU must make it clear that the talks will not necessarily lead to membership. “It has to be in there that the result will come from an open process, and that this result cannot be guaranteed in advance,” he said, adding that he would not accept giving all Turks the right to work anywhere in the EU. “This would overwhelm the capacity of our labour markets in the EU,” he said.
Mr Erdogan said that his campaign to join the EU, which has been his top political priority for the past two years, was a “civilisation project” to modernise Turkey. However, he insisted that the country could carry on without the EU.
“We want to move this project forward together with the European Union . . . but if unacceptable conditions are put forward,” he said. “I have to openly say that this will not be the end of the world. We will continue on our way, because Turkey is strong enough to shoulder this task.”
Abdullah Gul, the Turkish Foreign Minister, said: “What we demand is nothing more than our legitimate rights. We will not accept any injustice.”
The threat is likely to cause annoyance with more sceptical EU leaders, who feel that Turkey is trying to bully its way into the EU. Last weekend Mr Erdogan said that Islamic terrorism would continue unaba-ted unless the EU stopped being a “Christian club”.
In many European countries already struggling to integrate Muslim minorities, such as France and Germany, there is widespread popular opposition to letting Turkey join.
In London, Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, set out the reasons for membership to the House of Commons. “Turkey’s dynamic economy and society would be a valuable asset to the whole of Europe,” he said, “but Turkey’s European destiny is also important for wider reasons, because of the signal which a European Turkey would send to people everywhere of Europe’s commitment to diversity and to truly universal values
“We want to see an economically successful, democratic Turkey anchored in Europe and that would deal a heavy blow to those who stoke up mistrust and division and it could be an inspiration to many others in the Muslim world.”
After a bitter debate, the European Parliament in Strasbourg passed a non-binding motion calling on EU leaders to start entry talks with Turkey, by 407 votes to 262. The Parliament urged EU leaders to open talks with Turkey “without undue delay” and rejected decisively amendments offering a “special partnership.”
It also called on Turkey to accept that it committed genocide against the Armenians in 1915, a condition that France has also insisted on but that Turkey has rejected.
As the momentum to start negotiations seemed unstoppable, Senhor Barroso said: “It is now time for the European Council to honour its commitment to Turkey and announce the opening of accession negotiations.”
He insisted that current concerns about Turkey should not be used as an excuse to delay negotiations. “I believe this is the moment,” he said. “In ten years, Turkey won’t be the same as today . . . and fears that exist today can be put aside.”
Publicado por esta às dezembro 16, 2004 11:03 AM