Turkey seeks new EU accession push [fr] [de]
Turkish EU Affairs Minister and chief negotiator Egemen Bagiş said his country will pursue a strong communication strategy aimed at opening six new negotiation chapters during the coming year, EurActiv Turkey reported on 23 November.
Background
Turkey's relations with the European Economic Community (EEC) date back to 1959. But it took many years, until the Helsinki European Council of December 1999, for the country to obtain the status of a candidate country for EU membership.
The EU opened accession talks with Turkey in October 2005, but a number of stumbling blocks are holding up Ankara's progress, in particular concerning Turkey's relations with Cyprus, human and minority rights and freedom of expression (see EurActiv Links Dossier on 'Turkey accession and Cyprus').
Out of 35 negotiation chapters, so far only one chapter (science and research) has been provisionally closed. Eleven chapters are open, but the EU has suspended the opening of eight chapters over Turkey's failure to implement the Ankara Protocol, which states that access should be granted and ports opened to products coming from the Republic of Cyprus.
In 2009, only one new negotiation chapter – taxation – has been opened. Overall, the chapters open are free movement of capital, company law, intellectual property rights, information society and media, taxation, statistics, enterprise and industrial policy, trans-European networks, consumer and health protection and financial control.
Turkish chief negotiator Egemen Bagiş recently told EurActiv that five chapters are being blocked by France and three by Austria and Germany, while Cyprus is preventing the opening of two more chapters – education and energy (EurActiv 08/10/09).
Bagiş presented the outline of the new strategy, aimed at speeding up his country's EU accession process.
"Our new strategy that we have planned to launch in January 2010 is based on four elements," said the minister, revealing the following plan:
1. Sustainability of the EU negotiation process, which in his words includes criteria for opening chapters, the terms which the country has promised to fulfill and the criteria for closing the chapters.
2. Adopting an annual calendar for the period 2010-2013, in harmony with National Programs for the adoption of the EU acquis.
3. Progress on political criteria and reforms, which sees the harmonisation of political criteria as an on-going process, in which the political reforms achieved are seen as an indicator of the effectiveness of the government.
Bagiş said that the above three points would be backed by "a very strong communication strategy," as it is critical to increase internal support for the EU bid as much as that from abroad.
The chief negotiator also highlighted achievements under the EU's 'Pre-Accession Financial Aid' programme. He said his country had spent €1.3 billion on co-financing a total of 153 such projects, while the EU had contributed €1.1 billion. He reserved particular praise for programmes aimed at assisting civil society.
"As part of the project for developing civil society dialogue between the EU and Turkey […] a total of two million people have been reached in Turkey and EU countries," the minister said.
As Turkey expects the environment chapter to be opened on 12 December, efforts to open six additional chapters will continue at full speed. He listed these as: food safety, veterinary and phytosanitary policy, public procurement, competition policy, social policy and employment, the judiciary and fundamental rights, and justice, freedom and security.
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Positions
Plans to open more negotiating chapters in Turkey's EU accession negotiations are being thwarted for political reasons and Turkish leaders are fuming, the Turkish press writes.
"We are faced with political blockage from some countries on the opening of the environment chapter. Trying to block the process through political reasons is unfair," Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is quoted by the daily Hurriyet as saying.
Turkey is planning to open the environment chapter next month at the Intergovernmental Conference, making it the 12th of 35 chapters opened as part of negotiations over the country's EU membership, the daily writes.
As Cyprus is reportedly blocking the energy chapter, the minister commented:
"We are talking about cooperating on the energy security of Europe but we cannot open the chapter on energy because of the Greek Cypriot veto. It’s not understandable."
The daily Zaman also quotes Davutoglu, who spoke in Spain during what was seen as an effort to lobby Spanish officials and businessmen for what Turkey called an "accelerated pace for the accession process to the EU".
"We have great expectations of Spain because Spain understands the strategic asset of Turkey very well," Davutoglu is quoted as saying.
Spain assumes the rotating EU presidency on 1 January 2010.
In the spirit of facilitating negotiations, and moving the focus toward constructive issues, Daniel Gros, Director of the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), recently suggested to “create a ‘Union for the environment’ between the EU and Turkey”. This would include Turkey joining the European Emission Trading System (ETS), he added.
Daniel Gros made this statement at a conference, organized in Istanbul by the Turkish think tank EDAM. The co-founder of EDAM Sinan Ulgen added, in an interview to be published shortly:
“I absolutely agree with Daniel Gros. I see it as part of my own framework for superimposing the current negotiations with a new process which would have concrete areas of negotiations and benefits […] Turkey is a natural partner to be incorporated in the system. Turkey has already ratified the Kyoto protocol and is ready to undertake several commitments for the post-Kyoto period”.
Next Steps
- 1 Jan. 2010: Spain assumes EU presidency.
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