The EU moved closer to a new crisis yesterday as emergency talks designed to enable accession talks with Turkey to begin later today remained deadlocked late last night, writes Jamie Smyth, European Correspondent in Luxembourg.
Meeting at a special European Council session in Luxembourg, several EU foreign ministers predicted that a deal to enable accession talks to start today as scheduled could be found.
However, Austria continued to hold out against strong pressure from current EU president Britain to agree the framework for the accession negotiations last night.
Cypriot foreign minister George Iacovou was quoted as saying last night, "I am confident we will reach an agreement tonight." Slovenian foreign minister Dimitrij Rupel said: "My feeling is they will come to an agreement. I don’t see how they couldn’t come to an agreement."
Austria favours agreeing a looser partnership with Turkey rather than offering the predominantly Muslim country full EU membership. Vienna is seeking to delete a clause in the negotiating framework which says "the shared objective of the negotiations is accession" and replace it with wording making clear Turkey would be offered a lesser partnership if the EU felt unable to absorb it.
Ankara has made clear it would walk away rather than accept anything other than the talks offering full membership if it meets the entry criteria laid down by the EU. Its negotiating delegation has refused to fly to Luxembourg until the final text is agreed, effectively placing a deadline of noon on an agreement on the text of the framework, according to one EU official last night.
Austria was the only EU member state to formally object to starting accession talks with Turkey, a move that prompted last night’s emergency meeting of foreign ministers.
Several other EU member states such as France, the Netherlands and Denmark are also concerned about allowing Turkey to join the EU.
French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy was quoted yesterday as saying that Turkey’s planned membership talks with the EU may ultimately give it only an enhanced partnership rather than full membership.
But EU officials insisted last night that Austria remained isolated in its opposition to the planned framework for talks. Public opinion in Austria is steadfastly against allowing Turkey to join the EU. A recent Eurobarometer survey published by the EU found that 80 per cent of people are opposed to EU entry. Just 10 per cent of people support Turkey joining.
Vienna had also sought to make talks with Turkey conditional on accession negotiations starting with Croatia. Accession talks with Croatia remain stalled because UN war crimes prosecutor Carla del Ponte has accused it of not co-operating with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague.
However, the current EU president Britain sought to separate the link between Turkey and Croatia by scheduling the conclusion of Turkey’s negotiating framework text last night. Ms del Ponte is scheduled to begin a crucial review meeting on Croatia’s co-operation with the war crimes tribunal later today.
Political analysts had also speculated that regional elections held yesterday in Austria may have contributed to the hardline approach taken by Austrian chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel.
Early exit polls from yesterday’s election in the Austrian province of Styria, a stronghold of Schuessel’s People’s Party held since 1945, suggests that the Social Democrats will win the vote in the region.