Cyprus-Forum.com

[joe]

Merkel praises Finnish EU presidency over Turkey talks
Document Actions


19/12/2006

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday praised efforts by the Finnish EU presidency to unite the bloc over its partial suspension of Turkey's EU accession talks.

"We did not have to deal a long time in the council meeting," Merkel told reporters after a talks with Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, referring to an EU summit held on Friday which saw EU leaders suspend the country's accession talks in eight of the 35 policy chapters each candidate must complete.

EU leaders decided to move after Turkey's refusal to open its ports and airports to Cyprus under a customs union accord it signed with the bloc last year.

They also decided that Turkey could open accession talks in policy areas other than those eight chapters, but cannot formally complete them as long as the dispute over Cyprus remains unsolved.

Merkel said it had been "intelligent" to link, at least indirectly, Turkey's accession talks to the Cyprus issue.

"It sends the right signal" to Turkey, she added.

The German chancellor was in Helsinki for talks with Vanhanen prior to her country taking over the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union from Finland on January 1.