Cyprus-Forum.com

[joe]

EU considers freeze of membership talks with Turkey

14/11/2006

EU leaders may decide next month on a partial or full suspension of Turkey's membership talks unless a deal is reached in the coming weeks on opening Turkish ports and airports to traffic from Cyprus.

(FT, EUobserver - 14/11/06; AFP, AP, Reuters, Bloomberg, DPA, AKI, EurActiv, Zaman - 13/11/06)


Days after a toughly worded report on Turkey's accession progress, several EU member states called on Monday (November 13th) for halting the Union's membership talks with Ankara over its refusal to open its ports and airports to Greek Cypriot ships and planes.

Urging Turkey to protect human rights and step up its reform efforts, the report released by the European Commission (EC) last week gave Ankara until the EU summit on December 14th and 15th to meet its obligations under a customs deal signed last year with the bloc. Under the accord, Turkey agreed to extend its customs union to all EU members, including Cyprus.

Turkey has no diplomatic relations with the Greek Cypriot administration and is the only country that recognises the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in the Mediterranean island's north. It insists that it will lift its ban on Greek Cypriot vessels and planes only after the EU ends its economic boycott of the Turkish Cypriot community.

Speaking ahead of an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels on Monday, Austria's top diplomat said that a pause in Turkey's membership talks could be a good idea.

"If there is no important move from here until December then it might be wise to agree on a time-out to reduce tensions," Ursula Plassnik told reporters, referring to next month's EU summit.

Her Finnish counterpart, Erkki Tuomioja, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, voiced hope that a deal could still be reached within the next few weeks. In a bid to end the Cyprus stalemate before the December deadline, Finland has proposed a compromise deal. Under the plan, the port of Famagusta, located in the Turkish-occupied part of the island, would be opened for trade with the EU, in return for a move by Turkey to allow Greek Cypriot ships and planes to enter its ports and airports.

As part of the deal, the former Greek Cypriot residents of Famagusta's Varosha district -- now a ghost town -- would be allowed to return. "We have more than three weeks to find a solution acceptable to everyone," Tuomioja was quoted as saying after Monday's meeting. "I cannot guarantee any success in this. It is also quite possible that we do not reach an agreement within this time."

Should last-ditch efforts to end the stalemate fail, two scenarios are possible, according to media reports. Some EU members are said to favour a "complete disruption" of the entry talks with Turkey, while others would only back the suspension of negotiations on relevant chapters related to trade and customs issues.

Ali Babacan, Turkey's top negotiator with the EU, has warned that a breakdown in talks with his country would have consequences.

"We know that any pause in this process could have quite negative consequences not only for Turkey and the EU but for the whole region," he said at a panel discussion in Brussels.

Speaking at the same meeting, however, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn voiced optimism.

"I refuse to believe that there is no such thing as a win-win situation in the eastern Mediterranean," he said. "We have been so far able to avoid a train wreck and in my view we still have all the chances to avoid such in December."