Turkey, EU in last ditch bid to break deadlock
Foreign Desk Report

LUXEMBOURG—The European Union launched a last-ditch bid to break a deadlock threatening landmark negotiations with Turkey, but admitted “considerable difficulties” remained at emergency talks on the standoff. The 11th-hour ministerial talks Sunday evening — hours before the scheduled negotiations with Ankara Monday — focus on Austrian demands that the EU consider something less than full membership for the vast mainly Muslim state. “We’re committed to doing this. Of course we’re hopeful. But there is one delegation with considerable difficulties and we have to try to overcome them,” said a British spokesman ahead of the start of the talks.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, whose country has long been a staunch supporter of Ankara’s EU hopes, underscored the geopolitical significance of offering Turkey membership of the rich European club. “We’re concerned about this theological-political divide, which could open up even further down the boundary between so-called Christian-heritage states and those of Islamic heritage,” he told the BBC. “We need to see Turkey in the European Union and not pushed the other way.” EU leaders agreed at a summit last December to start membership talks with Turkey — which has been knocking on the EU’s door for over four decades — on October 3. But tensions flared again in July when Ankara, while signing an updated customs accord with the enlarged EU including Cyprus, issued a declaration reiterating its refusal to recognize the Nicosia government. A dispute over how to respond to that has been resolved, but a row remains over the negotiating framework — the guiding procedures and principles for the accession talks. It is unclear exactly what change of wording will satisfy Austria. The current draft — accepted by all 24 other EU states — says that EU entry is the main aim of the talks. Vienna would like that replaced, or at least complemented, by an offer of a lesser “privileged partnership”.
Turkish leaders, whose reputation for negotiating brinkmanship is well known, have warned they may yet not turn up in Luxembourg on Monday. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan echoed the comments of Britain’s Straw, warning the EU against being a “Christian club” by refusing to start the talks. “The picture ... will be very telling, not just for the future of Turkey but also for that of the EU,” he said. “Either the EU will decide to become a world force and a world player ... or it will limit itself to a Christian club.”
One unknown factor in all this is exactly how much stock Austria puts in neighbouring Croatia being given the green light on Monday to start its own delayed talks. Croatia was originally to have started EU entry talks in March, but its case has been held up by its lack of cooperation with the UN war crimes tribunal, notably over a key war crimes suspect, fugitive general Ante Gotovina. The court’s chief prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte, visited Zagreb on Friday and gave few signs that things had improved. While no official link exists between the candidacies of Croatia and Turkey, an EU diplomat noted: “The general feeling is that movement on Croatia would allow it (Austria) to be more flexible on the negotiating framework.”
Failure to start the Turkey talks would only deepen an EU crisis triggered by French and Dutch voters’ rejection of its draft constitution in May and June. Many cited opposition to Turkey’s EU hopes as a reason for voting no. On the eve of the talks, former French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing — architect of the EU constitution — reiterated his opposition to Turkey’s bid and said most French people agreed, as do most Europeans according to polls.