Croatia leaves Turkey behind in EU talks

Concerning the market competition chapter, Croatia can only start talks in the field once it meets benchmarks on state support for steel industry and ship building.

Turkey has however only seen progress in the market competition chapter, getting stuck on the customs chapter due to its stance on Cyprus' access to its ports and airspace, which violates a customs agreement Ankara signed with all 25-member states.

Turkey has said it will only change its position if Brussels also fulfills its political commitment to push through a trade arrangement for the northern province of Cyprus, inhabited by Turkish Cypriots.

Northern Cypriot citizens in 2004 voted in favor of the UN-proposed peace plan, just months before Cyprus joined the EU while the Greek Cypriots rejected it.

Meanwhile, the UN announced on Wednesday (28 June) that its high representative Ibrahim Gambari, the under-secretary general for political affairs, would carry out a diplomatic mission to Greece, Turkey, and Cyprus early next month, in a bid to see the prospects of resuming peace talks in the region.

Train crash scenario

But the EU has signaled that it will not wait until a final peace settlement of the dispute before Turkey implements its obligations on Cypriot shipping.

The European Commission is set to publish a report this autumn evaluating Ankara's progress, with several EU officials and politicians suggesting the talks could be frozen unless Turkey changes its attitude on Cyprus.

EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn warned earlier this month of a possible "train crash" on the country's path to EU membership if nothing changes.

The dispute is set to be one of the hottest issues on the table for the incoming Finnish EU presidency, with one Finnish diplomat saying this week "Turkey has some obligations it has to fulfill. But I don't hope there will be a train crash."

Kosovo looming

Another problematic subject for Helsinki will be the projected final phase of international talks on the status of Kosovo, a Serbian province currently under UN mandate of which the ethnic Albanian majority seeks independence.

But Serbian prime minister Vojislav Kostunica on Wednesday joined his fellow nationals in the town of Gracanica, in a Serb enclave of Kosovo, to celebrate the commemoration of the Serbs' lost battle with the Ottoman empire over 600 years ago.

He used the speech to a crowd of around 1,000 people to reiterate "Kosovo has always been and always will be part of Serbia," UK daily Telegraph reported.

But he also emphasized his "willingness to talk, to negotiate and to compromise".

Earlier this week during his visit to London, Mr Kostunica warned the EU and the west against imposing its favoured solution on the status of Kosovo upon Belgrade.

He argued that such an "imposed solution" would certainly be rejected by the Serbian parliament and eventually seriously harm the country's relations with the rest of the world.