THE EU/TURKEY: The EU's Enlargement Commissioner hinted yesterday that the Union might be ready to start accession talks with Turkey even if Ankara does not meet all criteria by its October deadline.
"We cannot use double standards here," Mr Günter Verheugen told a conference in Brussels. "We cannot request 100 per cent of everything if we don't do that in our own member-states. What we want to see is a critical mass that allows us to make a positive forecast."
The EU Commission is due to report by the end of the year on whether Turkey meets the political criteria which would enable the EU to set a date for accession talks. Turkey has passed a raft of reforms to try to meet the criteria.
Ankara first sought ties with Brussels in 1963, but has been repeatedly put off. It formally applied to join the EU in 1987.
Confirming that the commission would produce its report in early October, Mr Verheugen said that it would be fair and objective. "The mandate of the commission is to present an analysis that no one can question. The commission will go a little bit further," he said, adding that it would publish simultaneously a study on the political, economic and cultural impact of possible Turkish accession.
"We cannot ask member-states to make an assessment on the possible membership of Turkey without an impact assessment," he said.
Mr Verheugen said he believed governments in the 10 mostly central and eastern European countries which joined the EU on May 1st, raising its membership to 25, would back Ankara's bid.
"My contacts have clearly indicated that they are in favour of a possible accession of Turkey," he said, adding that even Poland and Hungary, which he singled out as considered hostile to Turkish membership, saw this as being in Europe's interest.
He acknowledged that there could be a gap between EU political elites and citizens on whether Turkish membership was desirable - one reason for preparing the new impact study.
Earlier this year Mr Verheugen expressed dismay at a spate of scare stories in the EU's tabloid press warning of a flood of benefit-seekers and economic migrants pouring west from the new member-states after the May enlargement.
He blamed this on a failure by EU governments to prepare their citizens for the expansion, even though it had been planned for years, and he appeared determined that this should not happen again if talks started with Turkey.
"There might be a gap between political leaders and citizens. It's true that citizens are not that prepared," he said. "My view is that the leaders of the new member-states would support a decision to start negotiations with Turkey if the conditions are right."