EU leaders inch closer to membership talks with Turkey

FORTY years of knocking on the door looked like paying off for Turkey last night, as EU leaders inched closer to agreeing that talks should begin to admit the country to the European Union.

The Turks will face at least ten years of negotiations and a series of specially devised hurdles before they are eligible to become a member. However, the deeply divided EU leaders gave Turkey no guarantees that the talks, due to begin on October 3 next year, will lead to membership.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was optimistic last night that he would get the go ahead as tense talks by the leaders of the 25 EU members went on later than expected.

“It will be a good decision for Turkey and for the EU,” he said, as he sat with about 250 politicians and civil servants and about 400 Turkish journalists in a Brussels hotel last night.

He has spent the last two years reforming Turkey’s legal system and civil rights to bring it closer to EU democratic standards.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern worked with Mr Erdogan during the Irish presidency and supported their bid. Austria, which does not favour Turkish membership, wanted the option of something less than full membership to be left open. Cyprus has also threatened to veto Turkey’s application over its refusal to recognise the Greek Cypriot government.

The island was divided between the Turkish and Greek Cypriots after Turkish troops invaded in 1974. The Greek half rejected a UN peace deal before joining the EU in May preventing effective reunification of the island.

The leaders hoped to agree a compromise in which Turkey will agree to work towards normalising relationships with Cyprus, and to extend their EU trade agreement to include the ten new members, including Cyprus.

Some other countries - France, Denmark and Holland in particular, believe Turkey is simply too big, too poor and too Muslim to join the EU. It will have a similar voting clout as Germany by 2015 when its population is expected to reach 80 million, making it the largest member.

The vast majority of its citizens are Muslim which will increase the union’s Islamic population to about 20%. It has a €200 billion debt and a huge under-employed agriculture sector.

French President Jacques Chirac was willing to swap his support for a later than expected date to start talks. It was hoped last night other concerns would be met with a set of guidelines on talks with all future EU candidates including Turkey.

Part of the highly sensitive framework document would allow permanent safeguards which could mean a ban on Turkish workers moving freely to other member states.

Turkey has said it will refuse to accept a Plan B that would have set out partial rather than full EU membership, if negotiations were not completed in a specific time. Britain, Italy and Spain in particular supported Turkey in rejecting such an option on the basis that it was planning for failure rather than success.