Posted on 12/06/2006 1:11:02 AM PST by Fred Nerks
German chancellor Angela Merkel has been forced to moderate her hard-line stance on Turkey’s bid for membership of the European Union, apparently withdrawing a proposal for an 18-month deadline for Ankara to open its ports to Cyprus.
She said the European Commission should report on Turkey’s progress on this issue, with the report to be delivered after elections in Turkey in autumn 2007 but before the elections to the European parliament in spring 2009.
ADVERTISEMENT Her comments followed talks in Mettlach near Saarbrücken, western Germany, with Jacques Chirac, the French president, and Lech Kaczynski, president of Poland.
Ms Merkel has since last week led moves among EU countries to insert a ‘review clause’ into an agreement at the EU summit in Brussels next week on the partial freezing of membership talks with Ankara because of Turkey’s stand-off with Cyprus, an EU member.
The clause would in effect have set Turkey a deadline of mid-2008 to open its ports or possibly faced further sanctions.
Mr Chirac said after the meeting that, like Ms Merkel, he believed “consequences were needed” because of Turkey’s unwillingness to open its ports, a condition of EU membership.
Ms Merkel’s appears to have been unable to convince Mr Kaczynski of her view, however. The Polish leader said Warsaw’s position as a supporter of Turkey’s EU membership “had not changed” during the talks.
Ms Merkel has also come under pressure from Turkey and the European Commission to change her stance, which officials in Brussels feared would lead to new divisions over Ankara within the EU at next week’s summit.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish prime minister, on Tuesday told Turkish legislators that it would be an “historic mistake” for the EU to create new hurdles for the country’s membership process, according to German news agency reports.
Ms Merkel’s office confirmed to the Financial Times that Mr Erdogan and Ms Merkel spoke on the telephone on Tuesday morning. The Turkish leader stressed the “damage that would be caused” by additional deadlines, news agencies reported.
Ms Merkel said in Mettlach that Turkey “should not see” the proposal of a Commission report as a sharpening of membership conditions for Ankara, but noted that “since something has not happened [Turkey’s opening of its ports to Cyprus] then some action must be taken”.
Olli Rehn, EU enlargement commissioner, on Monday appealed to Ms Merkel and Mr Chirac to drop the idea of a review clause, arguing that strict deadlines would not produce the desired results.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
Thanks FN for posting both of them. :')
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1749146/posts
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.