EU split over Turkish membership talks

European Union foreign ministers today struggled to agree on how to sanction Turkey for backtracking on a commitment to open its ports to trade with Cyprus, without alienating Ankara, which is negotiating to become the first mainly Muslim country to enter the EU.

Deeply divided over a proposal to partially suspend Turkey’s membership negotiations, officials acknowledged they were unlikely to agree – pushing the final decision to EU leaders who meet here at a two-day summit starting Thursday.

“I personally don’t expect that we will reach a conclusion today,” German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told ARD television before today’s meeting. “The positions of the European member states – some of them at least - are still too far apart for that.”

However, he said today’s talks would be important to prepare for the summit - “I am very confident that there will be an agreement at the end of this week.”

The ministers were assessing a recommendation by EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn to suspend eight of 35 negotiating “chapters” related to transport and trade policies, to pressure Turkey to implement a 2005 customs union pact with Cyprus and nine other EU states that joined the bloc in 2004.

Ankara has so far refused, arguing it will not do so until the EU lifts its embargo on the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in the north of the island.

The issue has split the 25 EU nations.

France and Germany have backed Rehn’s position and have suggested setting a 2008 deadline to review Turkey’s membership bid. Britain, Italy and Sweden have welcomed Turkey’s recent overtures and want a softer line to keep entry talks going. Greece, Cyprus, the Netherlands and Austria are pushing for suspension of even more negotiating areas until Turkey implements the customs pact.

“We have to stick to our principles,” Austria’s foreign minister Ursula Plassnik told reporters as she arrived for the meeting. “It is clear the number of chapters (to be suspended) will have to be put up.”

The dispute reflects wider doubts within the EU over Turkey’s bid to join.

Supporters – including the United States – see it as a chance to anchor a strategically important and moderate Muslim nation in the camp of Western democracies.

Opponents fear Turkey’s historical and cultural differences risk slowing the drive to build a united Europe. They point to continued concerns over democracy and human rights in Turkey and say the nation’s relative poverty will lead to mass westward immigration and huge strains on EU finances. Even without the dispute over Cyprus, the membership talks were expected to last at least 10 years.

Public opinion in many EU countries is strongly opposed to Turkish membership and recent EU demands over Cyprus have seen a swing among Turks against joining the bloc.

However, ministers are anxious to avoid a “train crash” in the negotiations that would poison Turkey’s relations with its European neighbours and perhaps lead the government in Ankara to review its European orientation.

“Turkey’s integration into the European value system is a project of outstanding importance,” Steinmeier told reporters. “We must not destroy within a few days what has grown over years.”

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded following a failed coup staged by supporters of union with Greece. Ankara is the only government to recognise the Turkish Cypriot state, but it does not recognise the Greek Cypriot government in the south which led the island into the EU in 2004.