TURKEY: Membership Of EU Remains A Sweet Dream

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Stefania Bianchi

BRUSSELS, Jun 29 2005 (IPS) - The European Commission insisted Wednesday that talks on Turkey’s membership of the European Union should start on time despite the bloc’s constitution crisis.

Launching proposals on how to run negotiations with Ankara over the next few years, the European Commission said Wednesday (Jun. 29) that talks on Turkey’s membership of the EU should start as planned on Oct. 3 with accession as a ”shared objective”, but stressed that the talks were ”open-ended”.

”The shared objective of these negotiations is accession. These negotiations are an open-ended process, the outcome of which cannot be guaranteed beforehand,” the executive arm of the EU said in a statement.

This means that there is no guarantee of eventual EU membership for the mainly Muslim country and that it will not be before 2014 at the earliest.

The EU pledged last December to start EU entry talks with Ankara in October, provided it fulfilled some strict conditions including signing a customs accord with the EU’s 10 new member states including Cyprus.

But like other potential members in the future, Turkey will also face much stricter conditions than candidates in the past and the terms laid down in the Commission’s road map for Turkey will be markedly tougher than those that applied to the ten new member states that joined in 2004.

Turkey will be expected to not only promise reforms on human rights and democracy, but also to implement them during the negotiations, which are expected to last more than a decade.

There are also a host of technical issues which will take many years to resolve such as agricultural reform and environmental standards.

But the plans have been clouded by French and Dutch voters’ rejection of the EU’s new constitution last month, which has plunged the bloc into an unprecedented crisis.

The plans still have to be approved first by all 25 member states in order for talks to start on schedule on Oct. 3. Failure to do so may mean that the date will have to be pushed back.

Presenting the negotiating framework to media representatives Wednesday, EU Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn insisted that Turkey’s membership of the EU would be in the bloc’s interest, but said that the negotiation process would not be easy.

”It is in Europe’s interest to have a stable, democratic, prosperous Turkey that adopts and implements all EU values, policies and standards,” he said, adding that the start of talks reflects reforms already achieved in Turkey.

”It gives this country a chance to demonstrate, through a fair and rigorous negotiation process, whether it is able to meet fully all the criteria required to join the EU. But we all know that it will be a long and difficult journey and we have to take into account the concerns of citizens,” he added.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso echoed concerns over criticism over Turkey’s bid to join the bloc and called for a ”serious debate” about the issue.

”We should discuss seriously the signal that was sent by the electorate regarding Turkey,” he told media representatives.

The proposals come at a time when critics of Turkey’s membership aspirations are making their voices heard.

While countries such as Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain are all in favour of further eastward enlargement of the EU, and see Turkey as a strategic partner, Turkish accession remains deeply unpopular in some member states such as Austria, Denmark, Cyprus and France. Many in those countries find Turkey too big, too different and too poor to join the bloc.

French President Jacques Chirac has promised to hold a national referendum on Turkish EU entry should negotiations be concluded. This effectively gives France a veto on Turkey’s entry to the bloc as Ankara’s EU accession treaty has to be ratified by all member states.

Many French and Dutch politicians also regard the Turkey issue as a key factor in referendum rejections of the EU constitution last month.

There are also fears that the next generation of leaders in the biggest EU countries may well be far less supportive of Turkey’s candidacy than the current one.

Looming German elections are also expected to see victory for the Christian Democrats, whose leader Angela Merkel is opposed to EU membership for Turkey.

Turkey, with a population of some 70 million Muslims, first applied for EU membership in 1963. It is widely acknowledged that the country has made huge progress in political reforms in recent years.

But anxiety persists about its commitment to implementing laws banning torture and ensuring freedom of religion. There is also concern about consequences for the EU labour market.