October 10, 2002	Thursday	Sha’aban 3, 1423

WASHINGTON, Oct 9: Irked by a European snub of NATO ally Turkey, the United States on Wednesday called on the European Union to open negotiations with Ankara “as soon as possible” on EU membership.

Meeting in Brussels, the European Commission gave the green light on Wednesday for 10 countries to join the EU in 2004, in a historic enlargement which aims to reunify Europe after the collapse of the Iron Curtain. But the report failed to give Turkey, a close US ally and NATO member, a date to start negotiations for entry

“We hope the European Union will begin accession talks with Turkey as soon as possible,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said after the group’s governing council, the European Commission, refused to set a date for such negotiations.

The spokesman did not repeat comments made earlier by a State Department official who said Washington was concerned about “a lack of respect being shown to the Turks” by the Europeans.

But he echoed the official’s comments that the United States thought Turkey should be an EU member.

“We’ve long believed that Turkey’s future is in Europe,” Boucher told reporters.

“It’s in the strategic interest of the United States and the European Union, Turkey and the European Union, that Turkey and the European Union build the closest possible relationship,” he said.

Boucher said the United States backed EU enlargement as a general principle and commended the European Commission for its decision to recommend the entry into the European Union of 10 mostly ex-communist candidate states by 2004 and note that Bulgaria and Romania hope to join in 2007.

“We have made clear our view that expansion is a good thing and that we support it,” he said.

But he acknowleged that Washington had a particular interest in seeing Ankara in the grouping and had lobbied EU members to include it.

“We think that better relations between the European Union and Turkey are important to us and that’s something that we’ve consistently advocated,” Boucher said.

US officials said Washington had been pressing numerous EU members on Turkey’s behalf, citing its key role in NATO and as a western-leaning, secular Muslim state as well as its role in the ongoing dispute with Greece over the divided island of Cyprus.

Ankara’s membership “would serve both Turkey’s interests and the interests of the European Union as well as the broader overall interests that we have in this very important region,” Boucher said.

One US official allowed, though, that Washington’s lobbying had not carried much weight, chiefly because it is not an European Union member and that some European countries had bristled at the US effort.

Turkey had been pushing the European Union to set a date since adopting sweeping human rights reforms in August, including the abolition of the death penalty and boosting rights for its Kurdish minority.

Foreign Minister Sukru Sina Gurel warned at the weekend that ties between Ankara and the European Union would suffer if his country was not given a date this year for the opening of accession talks.

RESHAPING: Thirteen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the EU’s executive arm gave the nod to a reshaping of the 15-member bloc that will take it up to the borders of Russia.

Barring last-minute hitches — including an Irish referendum later this month which in theory could derail the whole project — the new members will join in time for European parliament elections scheduled for June 2004.

The commission, in detailed assessment reports on the candidate countries, recommended the entry of Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Two poorer Balkan countries, Romania and Bulgaria, were cited as possible entrants in 2007.

“Thirteen years ago Europe was still divided by the wall of shame,” Commission president Romano Prodi told the European parliament, confirming that the 10 hopefuls had been given the Brussels green light.

With EU enlargement “we have rediscovered a common unity between all peoples. Our common destiny is to build our future together,” he said, adding: “Enlargement is our political masterpiece.”

The 10 candidate states given the go-ahead welcomed the reports.

The commission’s proposals will form the basis for a political decision on EU enlargement expected by the end of the year.

EU leaders will meet in Brussels over Oct 24-25 to discuss the recommendations, setting the stage for a Dec 12-13 summit in Copenhagen at which formal invitations will be extended.

But obstacles still remain even on the final straight of the EU candidate states’ long and winding path towards joining the bloc.

These include notably the Irish referendum on Oct 19 on the 2000 Nice Treaty, which is crucial for EU enlargement to go ahead in 2004.

Ireland sent shock waves through Europe in June last year when, in a first referendum, the treaty was rejected by 54 per cent of voters.—AFP\Reuters