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Turkey, EU accession negotiations nearing halt
The European Union opened accession negotiations with Turkey in October 2005. Countries hoping to join the bloc must fulfill EU requirements in 35 policy negotiating areas, or chapters. Ankara has so far formally opened 11 chapters, of which it has provisionally completed negotiations on just one, science and research. In 2006, while blocking eight chapters of the accession negotiations with Ankara due to its refusal to open its ports and airports to Greek Cypriot traffic, the European Council said it would review the situation at the end of 2009.
In addition to the eight chapters frozen due to a customs dispute, France has been blocking another five chapters that are directly linked to full membership. Greek Cyprus, meanwhile, accused by Ankara of using its veto rights over Turkey’s EU accession process, has clearly said it would not let talks on the energy part of the accession process start until an oil exploration dispute with Turkey is resolved. Greek Cyprus is also blocking talks on education and culture.
According to officials from the European Commission, there are now only five chapters that seem available to be opened. Those chapters are on environment and food safety.
In December, before the end of the ongoing Swedish rotating presidency of the EU, negotiations on environment are expected to be opened, leaving only four chapters to deal with for the upcoming Spanish term presidency, which will commence on Jan. 1, and other upcoming presidencies.
The Cyprus issue needs to be resolved urgently to avoid a halt in Turkey-EU relations, EU diplomats told Today’s Zaman. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso recently appointed Austrian diplomat Leopold Maurer as his special envoy to negotiations in Cyprus to find a lasting solution through the unification of the island. However, ongoing negotiations do not foretell a bright future, with Greek Cypriot leader Dimitris Christofias clearly saying that he sees no solution to the long-running Cyprus problem before the end of the year or even by next year.
The 2006 European Council decision has widely been considered a strong motive for Greek Cyprus to postpone reaching a resolution through ongoing UN-led negotiations between Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat.
In an annual progress report on Turkey’s membership efforts released last month, the European Commission refrained from imposing a deadline on Turkey to open its ports and airports to traffic from EU member Greek Cyprus, but some EU countries, already opposed to Turkish membership, are willing to kill Turkey’s membership hopes over the issue.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn says he believes neither a country nor an individual can be punished twice over the same issue, referring to the freezing of eight negotiation chapters. Yet, Greek Cyprus insists that all options will be on the table during the December summit.
Diplomats in Brussels do not see it likely that the EU will impose any new sanctions on Turkey in its December summit. They warn that any sanctions that might come out of the summit may lead to a permanent halt in Turkey’s accession process.
For its part, Ankara says the EU still has not approved commission reports prepared upon the completion of screenings on nine negotiating chapters despite the fact that Turkey’s screening process was completed in 2006. The government also says Turkey will know what kind of technical preparations it should make on these nine chapters once the EU approves the screening reports.
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