EU accession wording causes Turkish ‘discontent’

A text on enlargement adopted by EU foreign ministers on Monday (10 December) caused ‘serious discontent’ in Ankara after the term ‘accession conference’ was dropped at France’s request.

Even though the document confirms the objective of full EU membership for Turkey, the fact that the word “accession” has been dropped compared with last year’s text has caused some “serious discontent”, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson in Ankara declared on 10 December.

The EU foreign ministers’ conclusions speak of “intergovernmental conferences” instead of “accession conferences” with Turkey and Croatia, which are to be held later this month. The wording has been introduced at the request of France, leading to a clash between the French and the Swedish delegation at the EU foreign ministers’ meeting on Monday.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy makes no secret of his opposition to Turkish EU membership, having declared that “Turkey has no place in Europe”. In June, France managed to block negotiations with Turkey in the area of economic and monetary integration.

Turkish business organisations and think tanks were outraged by the change of wording. Turkish business organisation TUSIAD stated: “Such attempts to deteriorate Turkey’s EU process are a result of a hostile behaviour vis-a-vis Turkish people and in contradiction with the European values and ideals.” EU-Turkey think tank TRPlussaid that such a change in approach could “severely damage the confidence of Turkish citizens and business in the EU” and the Turkish Economic Development Foundation (IKV) added that this would “inevitably weaken the EU’s credibility”.

In its conclusions, the Council “regrets the limited progress achieved in political reform in Turkey in 2007”, but welcomes the Turkish government’s renewed commitment to reform, having overcome its internal political crisis. Its main shortcomings are in the area of judicial reform, the fight against corruption, minority rights and the strengthening of cultural rights, women and children’s rights, trade union rights and civilian control of the military.

Moreover, EU foreign ministers urged Turkey to “unequivocally commit to good neighbourly relations” with Cyprus. Membership talks with Turkey have been partially suspended since last year, due to its refusal to open its ports and airports to ships and planes from Cyprus. This brought the negotiations, which began in October 2005, to a halt in eight out of 35 chapters.

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