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Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basm Özeti
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EU holds out olive branch
to Turkey on Cyprus talks
By Uonel BaItMIr In Bru8seIs
The European Commission
yesterday stepped up its efforts
to defuse an escalating crisis
with ,Turkey over European
Union planS to, open membership
negotiations with Cyprus at the
end of the month;
Before flying to the divided'
island for talks with Greek Cypriot
leaders, Hans van den Broek,
EU foreign affairs commissioner;
~iled proposals' for a broader
EU-Tq.rkey customs ..union and
.deeper co-operation on agriculture,indùstrY
and services.
Tur~homcialS :welcomed the
Commission proposals, some of
which can go forward without
risking aGreek veto. But they
warned that. Ankara would still
boycott next week's pan-EuropeàD
conference in London - a
meeting the British hosts had
,hoped might defuse tensions
between GI1ece and Turkey.
Mr van den Broek made an
'indirect appeal to Greece to stop
blOcking the release of Ecu375m
($4l2m) fmancial aid to Turkey to .
finance the Commission's
beefed-up strategy. "[The propos- Cypriot community to join their
als] will lead to a deepening of Greek counterparts in the forthour
relations," he said. "This will coming membership talks.
be to the benefit of all our Attempts to forge an agreement
citizens." . are bogged down in the
Turkey plans to retaliate when
the EU formally opens negotialong-standing
dispute over the
status of the participants.
tions with the internationally Rauf Denktash, the Turkish
recognised Greek Cypriot government
in Nicosia on March 31. The
Cypriot leader, refuses to sit
alongside the Nicosia govern-
Turks are likely to meet the ment and is holding ouffor some
Turkish Cypriot community to
discuss the possibillty that Ankrecognition
of the Turkish com-
munit y as a separate entity. He is
ara might "annex" the northern also refusing to meet Mr van den
half of the island, where 35,000 Broek, who is pressing for each
Turkish: .trooPs ares~tioned: . delegation to sit, under the
The British presidency of the ,neutral tag of "Cyprus". '
, EU and the. Commission agreè . :.In Ii separate report to the
that "things are likely to get, Èuropean Parliament, the Comworse
before they get better"~ mission smd the Turkishgovernsaid
a senior Brussels official. ment's programme for improving
Some officials involved in the human rights and democracy
intensive US-EU-UN mediation
effort over Cyprus are said to be
"had not had sufficient impact".
Turkey argues that the EU is
resigned to the possibility that
Turkey will launch air strikes if
applying dual standards on
human rights and wants its memthe
Greek Cypriot government bership application to be put on
goes ahead with' its planned the same footing as the 10 candi.-
deployment of Russian S-300antiaircraft
missiles later this year.
dates from cen.tI:al and eastern
Europe.
One recipe for breakmg the deadlock
would be for the Turkish
Talking sense
to Turkey
The European Commission,
yesterday published its "initial:
operational proposals" for the
"European strategy for Turkey" ,
requested by the Luxembourg
summit last December.
The object of this strategy is
"to prepare Turkey for accession
by bringing it closer to the European
Union in every field".
Unfortunately that noble aim is
not taken at face value by the
Turks' themselves, because at the
same time they were excluded
from the "accession process" to
be launched on March 30 - a process
which includes not only the
six states that.are to start negotiating
their terms of entry
straight away but also five others
(Ro:QJania,Slovakia, Latvia, Lith- .
u!lnia and Bulgaria) that are
being held in a queue.
Turkey has been ina state of
high dudgeon ever sinœ. There is
a real danger that it will not even
look at the menu now proposed •
by the commission. And it is I
already certain that Turkey will
not attend next week's inaugural
session in London of the "EurOpean
Conference". This conference
was designed with Turkey
in mind, which is why the Turks
do not like it: they want not special
treatment, but the same
treatment as other candidates.
Turkish scepticism about the
new proposals would be justified
in ~o far as some of them involve
expenditure by the EU, and the
EU has yet to deliver on the
finanCial measures intended to
accompany the customs union.
These have been held up by a
Greek veto, which Greece says it
willlift only when Turkey agrees
to submit the dispute over an
uninhabited Aegean island to the
world court. Turkey says it will
do so only if Greece agrees to let
the same court rule on its deployment
of military forces on other,
larger islands close to Turkey's
coast, in apparent violation of
international treaties.
The whole situation is absurd.
Both the EU and Turkey know
that Turkish membership is, at
best a distant goal, and contingent
on reforms which Turkey
should in any case undertake in
its own interests. There is a real
danger that Turks will punish
: themselves, by continuing to
finance their deficit through the
bond market rather than correct
it through fIScal and structural
reforms (a sure route to hyperinflation);
by falling to end serious,
human rights abuses, and allow-
. ing their armed forces to continue
making and unmaking gov-
:ernments; and by discouraging
Turkish, Cypriots from settling
their differences with the Greeks
and playing lÎ. role in Cyprus's EU
membership negotiations.
Such a course would be disastrous
for Turkey, but it would
also, create a very unhealthy and
dangerous situation for the EU
. on its\south-eastern border. Dis-
'.suadfug Turkey from adopting it,
.and persuading other EU members
to take the Turkish problem
seriously, is the most urgent task
facing ~e .UKpresidency. In this
cauSe, T6ny Blair should make a
presidential visit to Ankara.
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