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BRUSSELS, Oct 6: Turkey won a green light from the European Commission on Wednesday to open membership negotiations with the European Union, a watershed decision after 40 years of on-again, off-again talks.
But the EU executive's recommendation carried several conditions, including the possibility of suspending talks if Ankara backtracks on democracy and human rights and of curbing any surge in labour migration once Turkey joins.
"The Commission's response today is 'yes'. ... However, it is a qualified yes," Commission President Romano Prodi told the European Parliament. "We are giving them credit, if you like, but that credit is not a blank cheque."
Mr Prodi urged Turks to be patient in what would be long and difficult negotiations. A strong, self-confident Europe had nothing to fear from Turkish accession, he said.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, speaking in Strasbourg, France, praised the Commission report as "balanced" and said he hoped talks would start early next year.
Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot, whose country is president of the 25-nation bloc, said he expected negotiations with the NATO ally to open in the second half of 2005. The Commission made the start of talks conditional on Turkey bringing into force outstanding legal reforms, notably of the penal code and criminal procedure, which are in the works.
Negotiations would be "an open-ended process whose outcome cannot be guaranteed beforehand", it said. It proposed no start date, leaving final decisions to EU leaders at a Dec. 17 summit.
Turkey's benchmark Istanbul stock index closed 41 percent up on its May 18 low, reflecting months of rising expectations. The prospect of Turkish membership, giving the EU borders with Syria, Iraq and Iran, is controversial across Europe. Public opinion is split on whether to accept a large, poor and mainly Muslim nation of 70 million with a patchy record on human rights into what has been seen by some as a "Christian Club".
SUSPENSION POSSIBLE: The EU executive said Turkey had made substantial progress in political reforms but must improve implementation, notably in the fight against torture, and expand freedom of expression and religion, and rights for women, trade unions and minorities.
It said it would monitor Turkey's human rights performance and report annually to EU summits, starting in December next year. "The Commission will recommend the suspension of the negotiations in the case of a serious and persistent breach of the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms on which the Union is based," it said.
EU ministers would then decide by qualified majority. Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said the recommendation was adopted by a very wide consensus. Commission sources said only two members voiced misgivings - Dutchman Frits Bolkestein and France's Pascal Lamy. Bolkestein alone opposed the decision in the end.
The sceptics won the last-minute addition of a clause saying the Commission would monitor during the talks the EU's ability to absorb new members while deepening integration.
The parliamentary debate highlighted worries in Europe at Turkey's human rights record, especially on torture, and its continued military presence in Cyprus, although none of the main political groups said it would oppose opening negotiations.
The leader of the biggest group, Hans-Gert Poettering of the conservative European People's Party, said the talks should have three options: membership, non-membership or a privileged partnership. But Verheugen insisted the aim was accession and there was no "Plan B".
The Commission made clear Turkey could not join before 2015 at the earliest, saying the EU would have to agree its budget for the period from 2014 before concluding the talks. -Reuters
