Friday

29th Mar 2024

Cyprus veto still looms over EU-Turkey talks

Turkey's EU accession talks remain highly fragile despite Monday's foreign ministers' decision to continue the bulk of chapters in Ankara's negotiating book, with Cyprus already hinting it may still use its veto to block progress in the negotiations.

EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn, who had sought to avert a complete "train crash" in the Turkey talks over Ankara's refusal to open its ports to Cypriot shipping, expressed relief about ministers' support for his idea to suspend only eight chapters of Turkey's 35-chapter strong negotiations package - while talks on the majority of remaining chapters could continue.

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  • The Cypriot veto hangs like a Damocles sword over the Turkey talks (Photo: European Commission)

"This enables progress in the accession negotiations," he stated.

The text agreed by foreign ministers "emphasizes" that "chapters for which technical preparations have been completed will be opened in accordance with established procedures," echoing Mr Rehn's earlier call to kick off talks with Ankara on at least four chapters waiting in line – on economic and monetary issues, industry, financial control and education and culture.

"The council looks forward to speedy progress on these issues," the EU conclusions say.

Some EU diplomats noted the text constitutes "progress" for Turkey compared to the current situation, in which Cyprus has been vetoing movement on any chapter over Turkey's blockade of its shipping.

But Cypriot foreign minister Yiorgos Lillikas immediately after Monday's talks kept Nicosia's veto option open - also on the four chapters the commission wants to kick off without delay.

"When this is suggested we will decide," he said, adding that "we cannot close our eyes to the behaviour of Turkey" in other areas than the ports issue, like Ankara's blocking of Cypriot membership of the Wassenaar Arrangement on arms exports.

Cypriot diplomats added that Ankara is also blocking Cypriot membership of the OECD, the economic think-tank, as well as Nicosia's participation in certain strategic EU-NATO discussions.

"We will take into account the attitude of Turkey," Mr Lillikas said on Nicosia's needed consent to the opening of new chapters in the EU-Turkey talks.

27 vetoes

Cyprus' tough stance highlights the fragility of the deal clinched by ministers on Monday, which has not altered the fact that unanimity is required for the opening and closing of any of the 26 chapters which the EU formally decided not to freeze.

Dutch foreign minister Bernard Bot also stressed the "intergovernmental" nature of the Turkey talks - meaning the talks are legally conducted by the 25 - soon 27 - EU member states and not by the commission.

"This is not a European Union negotiation. This an intergovernmental negotiation where every member state can veto whatever it wants to veto," he said.

"Every member state remains master of the negotiating process," he added.

Meanwhile, Ankara's continuing blockade on traffic from Cyprus is set to hang as a Damocles' sword over the Turkey talks, with the EU conclusions saying that "the council invites the commission to report on this in its forthcoming annual reports, in particular in 2007, 2008 and 2009, as appropriate."

Turkey has so far refused to open up to Cypriot trade if the EU does not ease the economic isolation of Turkish Cypriots in the North of the island - but Monday's text gives few guarantees that the bloc will soon make moves in this direction.

North Cyprus isolated

The passage on North Cyprus merely states that "work aiming at the adoption" of a commission-proposed scheme to open up EU trade to Turkish Cypriots "must resume without delay" not calling upon the Cypriot government in Nicosia to lift its current veto to the scheme.

Meanwhile, the possibility of an overall UN settlement on the Cyprus issue - which would remove a major hurdle to EU-Turkey talks - was kept out of the conclusions after pressure from Nicosia.

Instead, a separate "statement" on how to get the UN-led talks on Cyprus back on track was issued by the Finnish EU presidency under its own responsibility, not committing Nicosia to concrete steps to engage with the UN.

Greek Cypriots in 2004 rejected a UN plan to reunify the island, divided since 1974, in a popular referendum.

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