Turkish hopes in Spanish EU presidency run high

With the Treaty of Lisbon having gone into effect on Dec. 1, 2009, the EU’s primary structural change was the establishment of a permanent presidency, currently led by former Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy. Along with this, the EU also has a new term president: Spain, a country whose term Turkey has long awaited in the hope that it will be a means to accelerating and intensifying its membership negotiations.

Spain’s continued support for Turkey’s EU membership is important at this point of time because Turkish-EU relations accelerated following the opening of a new negotiation chapter, this one on environment, in December.

Austria, Germany and France have always been against Turkey’s EU membership, citing various reasons, and these countries have seen immense domestic resistance to Turkey’s membership. Spain, however, never experienced such resistance to Turkey on the part of its people. There were also no Spanish parties trying to gain votes based on an anti-Turkey election platform.

“Apart from France, Mediterranean countries usually support Turkey’s EU membership. This includes Greece, too. Greece believes that its problems in the Aegean Sea will be resolved if Turkey gets into the EU,” Celalettin Yavuz, an expert from the Turkish Center for International Relations and Strategic Studies (TÜRKSAM), told Sunday’s Zaman.

Speaking at a press conference on Dec. 30, Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said the primary challenge for Spain is economic recovery following the global financial crisis and revitalizing the European Union’s position in the international order.

Commenting to Sunday’s Zaman on the Spanish term presidency and its role in Turkey’s EU membership bid, Turkey-EU Foundation (TAV) executive board member Can Baydarol said Spain is among the “good countries” that most strongly support Turkey’s membership. He also stressed that Zapatero is comfortable and likes to be seen together with his friend, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Spain will place special emphasis on defending the singular nature of the neighborhood policy and on pushing for balanced progress on its Euro-Mediterranean and eastern fronts, reads a statement on the official Web site of the Spanish EU presidency.

Spain and Turkey are both founders of the Alliance of Civilization, now operating under the auspices of the United Nations. “When Prime Minister Zapatero came to Turkey in April of last year, he renewed his strong support for Turkey’s EU membership. He later reiterated this in his speeches over the summer,” Yavuz said, noting that Spain also bolstered Turkey’s desire to join the 27-nation bloc.

Assessing the current atmosphere in the EU, Yavuz said there are several problems the EU faces and that it will be difficult for Spain to help Turkey strengthen its relations with the EU. Yavuz said that with the approval of the Treaty of Lisbon, these problems somehow disappeared, particularly the issue of enlargement. “This development opened the way before Turkey,” he added.

Yavuz said only one chapter was opened during the Swedish term presidency, adding that it would have been better if this chapter was opened last due to its size and scope. He believes more chapters might be opened during the Spanish presidency.

Noting that Spain is “optimistic” about Turkey’s EU membership talks, Baydarol said Spain will also face problems at EU summits in defending Turkey, particularly if it is related to the Cyprus problem.

In the latest EU summit, held in early December of last year, Greek Cyprus complained about Turkey continuing to refuse Greek Cypriot vessels entry to Turkey’s air and sea ports. Greek Cyprus warned it would block six negotiation chapters if Turkey persisted in keeping its seaports and airports closed to Greek Cypriot traffic. “That was a last-minute problem because Greek Cypriot leader Dimitris Christofias said the island nation would block the opening of six chapters. This means Turkey will only continue with half of the 35 chapters,” Baydarol said.

Emphasizing the importance of meetings between Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) President Mehmet Ali Talat and Christofias, Baydarol said if no positive outcome emerges from peace negotiations, and since Turkey was crystal clear that it will not open its ports and airports until the economic isolation of KKTC is eliminated, there might be deadlock in Turkey’s relations with the EU. He also said the next term presidency would be chaired by Belgium, which may create additional problems in relations with the EU.

Speaking about the possible opening of new chapters, Baydarol said only four or five chapters could be considered for opening during Spain’s term presidency.

“Spain will work more. Optimistically speaking, I think two chapters will be opened, but I can say that there is a high probability that only one will be opened,” Yavuz said. He also said there are four chapters that could be easy for Turkey to open but that the six-month term presidency is too short for Turkey to do as much as it would like before the presidency switches to a country less favorable to Turkey.

The TÜRKSAM expert, Yavuz, underlined that Turkey is not entering 2010 in a favorable context. He said Spain’s diplomatic skills would determine how influential it will be during Turkey’s EU negotiations. “Turkey still has not opened its border with Armenia. It has problems with Greek Cyprus. To what extent Spain will be able to shoulder these criticisms by other EU member countries remains to be seen,” Yavuz said.

Chairing the rotating presidency is not a very powerful post in the EU. After assuming the presidency, a country may bring issues to the agenda or advocate them, but the decision-making mechanism is out of the term president country’s control.