Calling on the EU leaders to honor their signatures under an EU summit decision in Dec. 2004, which gives the go-ahead for opening membership negotiations with Turkey in Oct. 2005, Gül said: “There is no legal ground for creating problems out of blue now. Europe had destroyed the Berlin Wall 20 years ago. Will it now build new Berlin walls? This is openly lack of vision.” Gül said the 2004 decision was “no joke” and added: “There was a unanimous decision to open the talks after lengthy debates. Honoring promises is a main principle of law and it is binding on all.”
Calling Turkey’s eventual accession into the EU as “an added value” for the 27-nation bloc, Napolitano joined Gül and underlined the need for commitment to the principle of pacta sunt servanda, referring to a principle of international law in Latin which means that agreements must be kept.
“In the past, many people either said yes or no, thus declared their positions. After years-long debates, we should accept that the 2004 decision is a deserved decision. We cannot perceive it as a superficial decision. From now on, we should comprehend the principle of pacta sunt servanda and pursue it,” Napolitano said. French and German leaders oppose Turkish membership and call for a privileged partnership instead, a formula Turkey categorically rejects.
