BERLIN/BRUSSELS: Turkey’s 40-year dream of joining the European family suffered a double blow on Friday when Jacques Chirac and Angela Merkel, Germany’s conservative leader, raised serious doubts about forthcoming talks on EU membership. In his most significant intervention of the year on Turkey, the French president accused Ankara of failing to act “in the spirit” of a country hoping to join the EU. Mr Chirac singled out Turkey’s conduct last month when it signed a customs agreement with all EU countries — the last obstacle ahead of membership talks — but insisted that it would still refuse to recognise Cyprus.

During talks in Paris on Friday with José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission President, Mr Chirac warned that “this declaration poses political and legal problems and that it is not in the spirit expected of a candidate to the union”. As Mr Chirac voiced his unease, Turkey found itself under renewed pressure in the EU’s largest country when Mrs Merkel signalled that she intends to torpedo Ankara’s application if, as expected, she wins next month’s German general election.

In a letter to the EU’s conservative heads of government Mrs Merkel said negotiations with Turkey, which are due to start on October 3, should not automatically lead to membership. They should instead lead to a “privileged partnership” and should be “open ended”.

The interventions by Mr Chirac and Mrs Merkel show that within weeks Turkey could face the nightmare scenario of losing the support of the EU’s two most significant countries. Until now Paris and Berlin have been in favour of Turkish membership.

Mrs Merkel has always argued in favour of downgrading Turkish membership. The popularity of her stance has allowed Paris to become less friendly to Turkey after the French rejected the draft EU constitution in May. Unease at the prospect of Turkish EU membership was seen as part of the reason for the rejection. The first public signs of the change in Paris came early this month when Dominique de Villepin, the French prime minister, said it was “inconceivable” that Turkey could start talks on EU membership without recognising one of its members. Unnamed ministers told Le Figaro newspaper that Mr Chirac had endorsed Mr De Villepin’s remarks at a cabinet meeting.

The intervention by Mr Chirac shows that Turkey could run into trouble when the EU gives its formal response to its signing of the customs union, known as the Ankara Protocol. Britain, which is chairing the talks in its role as president of the EU, believes that Turkey does not need to recognise the Greek Cypriot government at this stage. But Britain needs to win the support of all 25 EU member states, which means that France could delay the talks. Mrs Merkel’s letter shows that she may try to change the nature of the membership negotiations. The basic framework of the talks, agreed by European leaders last December, is designed to lead to full membership. If the talks fail then Turkey would be offered something akin to Mrs Merkel’s “privileged partnership”.

But her plan would turn the talks on their head by placing this lower form of membership on the table at the start of the talks in October. Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, who would reject this, faces delicate discussions when he hosts a meeting of his EU counterparts in Wales next week. Mrs Merkel sent her letter to the leaders of France, Italy, Austria, Holland and Greece, as well as to other conservative-led countries. A copy was sent to Tony Blair in his role as EU president. —Dawn/Guardian News Service