Lajcak’s remarks, during an interview with a group of journalists who were in the Slovak capital of Bratislava for President Abdullah Gül’s official visit to the city, came as an implicit reference to Turkey-critics within the EU who are led by France and Germany.
The EU opened accession talks with Ankara -- an EU candidate since 1999 -- in October 2005, but these have been progressing slowly amid opposition from France and Germany. The unresolved Cyprus dispute and a slowdown of reforms in Turkey are other factors hampering the accession process.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are the most high-profile European politicians opposed to Turkey’s accession. Sarkozy claims Turkey does not belong in Europe, while Merkel promotes a “privileged partnership” that falls short of membership, a formula Ankara categorically rejects. In Berlin in May, Merkel and Sarkozy made a joint statement declaring that they shared a common position regarding Turkey’s accession to the EU, in that it should be offered a privileged partnership, not full EU membership.
“When it fulfills the required criteria, Turkey should be accepted as a full member. Conditions should not be changed while negotiations are continuing,” Lajcak said Tuesday. The Slovak minister’s remarks are reminiscent of the stance displayed by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vis-à-vis the leaders of Germany and France, as he constantly warns the two leaders that the rules of the game cannot be changed halfway through.
“Turkey is an influential country which plays a constructive role in its region. It has a deep knowledge of Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East. As the EU, we want to take advantage of Turkey’s knowledge and experiences,” Lajcak said, noting that he had observed Turkey’s clout in the Balkans when he served as an EU representative in Bosnia.
Lajcak, whose country entered the EU in 2004, was critical of the union’s performance.
“The EU should revive persuasiveness of the enlargement process. The union has recently focused so much on internal reforms, leading to a negative impact on enlargement perspectives. In the last six-seven years, the EU has been struggling with its internal matters,” the minister said.
Referring to the fact that during a Brussels summit last week, EU leaders approved a key concession to the Czech Republic that appears to clear the way for the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty, Lajcak said the time was now ripe for refocusing on the enlargement process. As of Tuesday, the Czech top court cleared the EU-reforming Lisbon Treaty, one of the last hurdles to its ratification.
“Our answer to the question of from where the borders of the EU will pass is: the Balkans and Turkey,” Lajcak went on to say.
The minister, meanwhile, also lent support to Turkey’s efforts to normalize its relations with its estranged neighbor Armenia, while urging swift resolution to the Cyprus issue.
Lajcak said he believed that the normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey would help in the resolution of other regional issues in the Caucasus, including the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute between Armenia and Azerbaijan. He noted that his government has been closely following the government’s democratization initiative, which is expected to expand freedoms for Turkey’s Kurds.
In Bratislava, Merkel and Sarkozy got their share of criticism from Gül in a speech delivered at the Turkey-Slovakia Business Council meeting held on Tuesday. “Some of the big countries of the EU have forgotten the principle of pacta sunt servanda,” Gül said, referring to a principle of international law in Latin which means that agreements must be kept. “We haven’t seen support from these countries on our way to EU membership. Such manners by these countries have been harming confidence in the EU,” he added, in apparent reference to France and Germany.
A recent survey has revealed the impact of the French and German leaders’ constant objection to Turkey’s EU bid, with a significant loss of confidence in these two countries among the public. According to the survey, conducted in August by the Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization (USAK), France is third on the list of countries regarded as a threat by the public, while there has been a large decrease in Turkish people’s opinion of Germany as a friendly country.
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