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TURKEY IS FACING TOUGHEST HURDLE YET ON ROAD TO JOINING EUROPE
By David Rennie in Brussels
The Daily Telegraph, UK
Nov 7 2006
Turkey faces the toughest hurdle yet in its uphill struggle to join
the European Union with a report on its progress towards meeting a
raft of demands necessary for accession.
The European Commission report, published tomorrow, is certain to be
seized on by European leaders who oppose Turkish admission.
By the end of this year such opponents, who include Angela Merkel, the
German chancellor, want to suspend Turkey's accession negotiations,
at least in part, in punishment for Ankara's refusal to meet key
pledges such as opening its ports and airports to traffic from Cyprus.
advertisement That hostility is mirrored by rising anger inside Turkey
towards the EU, which is seen by a growing number of ordinary voters
as guilty of double standards in its dealings with Ankara.
In a sign of how bad things are, the commission - a champion of
Turkish membership, along with Britain - yesterday seized on a largely
symbolic gesture of goodwill from Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish
prime minister.
Olli Rehn, the EU enlargement commissioner, expressed delight after
Mr Erdogan said that he was ready to re-examine a notorious section
of the penal code, article 301, which has been used to prosecute
writers for "insulting Turkishness".
Mr Rehn said: "It shows that the Turkish prime minister is personally
committed to free speech and EU accession."
The commission, which is in charge of monitoring Turkish readiness to
join the EU, has repeatedly urged Mr Erdogan to change article 301,
which has been used to prosecute journalists and intellectuals such
as Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel literature prize winner, for discussing
the massacres of Armenians.
Mr Erdogan, seen as a moderate Islamist, had previously shied away
from changing article 301, rather than confront nationalist voters
ahead of elections next year.
However, EU diplomats said that the real crisis for Turkey stemmed
from the far more concrete question of access to Turkish ports and
airports for ships and planes flying the flag of Cyprus, which joined
the EU as a divided island in 2004.
Turkey has until the end of the year to comply, but insists it cannot
open its ports unless the Greek Cypriot government stops blocking other
EU nations from engaging in direct trade with the Turkish-occupied
north of Cyprus.
Cyprus refuses to allow any such linkage, setting the scene for a
standoff that Mr Rehn has called a "train crash", when EU heads of
state and government meet for a summit next month.
A last-ditch effort at crafting a compromise, led by Finland, which
holds the rotating EU presidency until the end of the year, failed
last weekend.
Mrs Merkel told the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper yesterday that if
Turkey's ports remained barred to Cyprus "the situation becomes very,
very serious".
For countries like Britain, which expended huge political capital
to set Turkey's accession talks in motion a year ago, the focus is
on trying to persuade partners to freeze only those areas of talks
directly related to things like trade or transport.
However, other EU diplomats noted that when the time came to unfreeze
talks, next year or in 18 months, the political landscape of Europe
was likely to be even more hostile.
In France, the centre-Right favourite to win the presidency next May,
Nicolas Sarkozy, is an opponent of Turkish membership.
By David Rennie in Brussels
The Daily Telegraph, UK
Nov 7 2006
Turkey faces the toughest hurdle yet in its uphill struggle to join
the European Union with a report on its progress towards meeting a
raft of demands necessary for accession.
The European Commission report, published tomorrow, is certain to be
seized on by European leaders who oppose Turkish admission.
By the end of this year such opponents, who include Angela Merkel, the
German chancellor, want to suspend Turkey's accession negotiations,
at least in part, in punishment for Ankara's refusal to meet key
pledges such as opening its ports and airports to traffic from Cyprus.
advertisement That hostility is mirrored by rising anger inside Turkey
towards the EU, which is seen by a growing number of ordinary voters
as guilty of double standards in its dealings with Ankara.
In a sign of how bad things are, the commission - a champion of
Turkish membership, along with Britain - yesterday seized on a largely
symbolic gesture of goodwill from Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish
prime minister.
Olli Rehn, the EU enlargement commissioner, expressed delight after
Mr Erdogan said that he was ready to re-examine a notorious section
of the penal code, article 301, which has been used to prosecute
writers for "insulting Turkishness".
Mr Rehn said: "It shows that the Turkish prime minister is personally
committed to free speech and EU accession."
The commission, which is in charge of monitoring Turkish readiness to
join the EU, has repeatedly urged Mr Erdogan to change article 301,
which has been used to prosecute journalists and intellectuals such
as Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel literature prize winner, for discussing
the massacres of Armenians.
Mr Erdogan, seen as a moderate Islamist, had previously shied away
from changing article 301, rather than confront nationalist voters
ahead of elections next year.
However, EU diplomats said that the real crisis for Turkey stemmed
from the far more concrete question of access to Turkish ports and
airports for ships and planes flying the flag of Cyprus, which joined
the EU as a divided island in 2004.
Turkey has until the end of the year to comply, but insists it cannot
open its ports unless the Greek Cypriot government stops blocking other
EU nations from engaging in direct trade with the Turkish-occupied
north of Cyprus.
Cyprus refuses to allow any such linkage, setting the scene for a
standoff that Mr Rehn has called a "train crash", when EU heads of
state and government meet for a summit next month.
A last-ditch effort at crafting a compromise, led by Finland, which
holds the rotating EU presidency until the end of the year, failed
last weekend.
Mrs Merkel told the Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper yesterday that if
Turkey's ports remained barred to Cyprus "the situation becomes very,
very serious".
For countries like Britain, which expended huge political capital
to set Turkey's accession talks in motion a year ago, the focus is
on trying to persuade partners to freeze only those areas of talks
directly related to things like trade or transport.
However, other EU diplomats noted that when the time came to unfreeze
talks, next year or in 18 months, the political landscape of Europe
was likely to be even more hostile.
In France, the centre-Right favourite to win the presidency next May,
Nicolas Sarkozy, is an opponent of Turkish membership.