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European Union's Ashton, Füle to hold key talks in İstanbul
Turkey will be represented by a delegation led by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and Turkey's chief EU negotiator, State Minister Egemen Bağış, while the EU's high representative for foreign policy, Catherine Ashton, and EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Füle as well as officials from the European Commission and the EU Council will participate in the meeting on behalf of Brussels. “We will discuss not only the negotiation process but also all regional and global issues,” Bağış told Today's Zaman on Monday while noting that Ashton and Füle will be coming to Turkey for “political consultations.”
“Upon our request, counterterrorism efforts are also included on the agenda of this meeting. Our prior expectation was to have more and effective support from both the European Commission and the member countries against this trouble called terrorism,” Bağış said.
In addition to Ankara’s firm demand that its EU partners lend efficient support to its fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the Turkish government’s ongoing efforts for a constitutional reform will also be on agenda of the meeting.
Gilles de Kerchove, the EU’s counterterrorism coordinator, recently held talks with Turkish officials in Ankara to coordinate efforts against the PKK amidst increasing attacks by the organization, which is listed as a terrorist organization by the bloc as well.
The dispute between the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany (P5+1) and Turkey’s neighbor Iran surrounding the latter’s controversial nuclear program, an Iranian nuclear fuel swap on the basis of an agreement reached with Turkey and Brazil in May, the Middle East peace process and the western Balkans are some of the joint global items on the agenda of the İstanbul meeting.
Ankara’s demand that Israel offer an apology or accept an international inquiry into its raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship is likely to be high on the agenda of the talks, with the Turkish side urging the EU for more concrete support of Turkey’s stance.
“She is very well aware of Turkey’s reasonable expectations from Israel, if Ms. Ashton would like to mediate on the dispute between Turkey and Israel: apology, compensation for families of the victims and lifting of the illegal embargo on Gaza. We would naturally welcome the recovery of ties with Israel if Ms. Ashton can persuade Israeli officials to meet these demands,” Bağış said.
Ministerial-level meetings between Turkey and the EU have been held twice a year since a Helsinki 1999 summit of the EU Council when Turkey was declared to be a candidate country. Those meetings had been called “EU Troika-Turkey” meetings, with ministers from current and upcoming EU term president countries and the EU’s enlargement commissioner representing Brussels.
French opposition to Turkey
In a move likely to seriously annoy Ankara, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has stated that his country supports all western Balkan countries in their bid to join the EU except Turkey.
All countries of the former Yugoslavia plus Albania are destined to join the EU one day, Fillon said in an interview with the Croatian daily Jutarnji list. France, however, takes a different view of Turkey’s integration into the EU, he added, the news portal EUobserver reported on Monday.
“It is known what the French position is: It is not presumed that Turkey will become a full member of the EU. We accept ties as close as possible -- but without accession at the end of the process.”
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