The EU narrowly averted a crisis last night when foreign ministers finally agreed a historic deal to enable the start of accession negotiations with Turkey, writes Jamie Smyth in Luxembourg.
The negotiations, which will take at least 10 years to conclude, formally began early this morning when the Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gül arrived in Luxembourg.
The agreement followed 30 hours of intense discussions at a council of ministers meeting in Luxembourg to overcome Austrian objections to the start of the talks.
Austria, which was the only member state to formally object to starting accession negotiations, had sought to change the text of the negotiating framework to include a reference offering Turkey alternatives to full EU membership.
However, after marathon discussions between British foreign secretary Jack Straw and his Austrian counterpart, Ursula Plassnik, Vienna dropped its insistence on a rewording of that aspect of the framework text for the accession negotiations.
Announcing the deal, Mr Straw said it was important to begin negotiations as planned with Turkey, a European, secular and Muslim country.
"We are all winners: Europe, the existing member states and the international community," said Mr Straw, who chaired the talks as Britain holds the EU presidency.
The agreement enabled Mr Gül to board a plane for Luxembourg to attend an official ceremony to mark the start of the accession talks. He had earlier refused to travel until Turkey had agreed the framework text for the start of negotiations.
Despite expressing concern over a paragraph in the framework stipulating that Turkey would not block EU members from joining international organisations, Ankara signed off on the framework for the talks.
Turkish ministers were fearful this could force them into having to agree to allow Cyprus, which it does not recognise, into Nato. But US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan to assure him that the proposed EU negotiating framework would not impinge on Nato.
Austria was the only EU member to formally object to starting accession talks with Turkey, which with 70 million people may have the biggest population of any EU state if it eventually joins.
A recent opinion poll found that 80 per cent of Austrians do not want Turkey to join, with just 10 per cent in favour.
Several other EU member states such as France, the Netherlands and Denmark, are also concerned about allowing Turkey to join the EU.
Meanwhile, EU foreign ministers also signalled yesterday that they were ready to begin accession talks with Croatia, which is likely to join the EU well before Turkey.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said Ireland had been a strong supporter of Croatia's bid to join the EU.
He welcomed the deal to start talks with Turkey and said it would have been bad faith not to stick to the date for the start of talks, which was initially agreed last December.
"Turkey is a bridge between the Middle East and Europe," said Mr Ahern.
"This will send a strong signal to Islam and moderate countries and people [ that] the EU is not just a Christian club."
Asked if there had been enough debate in Ireland about the question of Turkey's accession to the EU, Mr Ahern said there would be at least 10 years to educate people.
The deal with Turkey was not welcomed by several hundred Armenian protesters gathered outside the council meeting to protest at the start of accession talks.
"Turkey is not yet a democratic country and has not recognised the Armenian genocide in 1915," said Michael Cazarian, chairman of the Armenian Socialist Party, which helped to organise the protest. Turkey still refuses to accept responsibility for the murder of more the one million Armenians in 1915.