France gives stay of execution on Turkey EU hopes
30.05.07 @ 09:25
France has confirmed that it will agree to press ahead with Turkey's EU membership talks for now, and push for a broader decision in December on whether or not to scrap the country's accession process altogether.
The Bosphorus: EU talks with Turkey started in December 2005, but two years down the line, France might put them on a different track (Photo: wikipedia)
A French government official was quoted by French media as saying on Tuesday (29 May) that Paris will not try to block the German EU presidency's plan to open one to three "negotiating chapters" with Ankara this month.
New French president Nicolas Sarkozy will instead focus on EU institutional reform under a new EU treaty, set to dominate the June summit, while returning to the wider enlargement debate - including Turkey - at the end of this year.
"My priority is the success of the German presidency and the European council on June 21 and 22. What do we have to do to try to break the institutional blockage," Mr Sarkozy told reports on Monday.
"The real rendezvous [on Turkey] will be in December 2007," he said, referring to the traditional end-of-year summit.
Turkey's talks - kicked off in October 2005 - were put on ice last December in eight out of 35 areas covered by EU legislation due to a dispute over Cyprus. Both Brussels and Ankara have been trying to keep talks going at a technical level in the meantime.
So far, two chapters have been opened - on research and industry - with Berlin now planning to secure the opening of up to three more sections of the accession package, covering statistics, financial control and economic and monetary policy.
In its own initiative earlier this year, Turkey's government adopted a seven-year agenda aiming to put in place most of the so-called acquis communautaire - the EU lawbook - by 2013 despite the freeze on some chapters.
But the arrival of Mr Sarkozy has put the whole process into question, with the new French president saying Turkey has "no place" in Europe and suggesting some sort of privileged partnership instead of EU entry.
Mr Sarkozy also sees Turkey as playing a leading role in a new project to set up a "Mediterranean Union," which would deal with regional issues and could comprise several southern EU member states, Turkey and some north African countries.
But Ankara has rejected such plans, pointing out its existing status as a candidate country for full EU membership.
