COPENHAGEN, Dec 11: The European Union came under strong pressure from the United States on Wednesday to embrace Turkey as a future member, on the eve of a landmark summit to expand the bloc beyond the old Iron Curtain.
US President George Bush called Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rassmussen, who will host the EU summit starting on Thursday, to press the EU to give Turkey a date for membership talks, but was told Ankara must first meet human rights criteria.
“We will do our utmost to support the reform process in Turkey but at the same time, I stressed that according to the rules of the EU a candidate country must fulfil certain political criteria to get a date for the start of accession negotiations,” Rasmussen told reporters.
“I will not be pressured, but of course I listen carefully to those who offer me good advice. President Bush is well aware of the fact that this is a European decision,” he added.
Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan, who met Bush on Tuesday, kept up Turkey’s high expectation by demanding a firm date next year.
But German government sources said EU leaders were not likely to go beyond a Franco-German proposal to open negotiations in July 2005 if the Turks pass a human rights review in late 2004.
Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash dampened hopes that the Copenhagen summit might achieve a breakthrough on reuniting the divided Mediterranean island, saying his administration could not sign a U.N.-backed peace deal at the EU summit.
“We’re not in a position to sign a document,” Denktash told Turkish broadcaster NTV. “We’re not running away from negotiating. Give us time to negotiate with the Greek Cypriots.”
Nevertheless, Rasmussen said Denmark had set aside facilities for Cyprus negotiations at the summit centre at the request of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Danish officials said the U.N. chief might fly in himself on Friday if a deal seemed near.
Turkey’s long-standing EU application has been on ice for years, but Bush’s lobbying for an ally vital in any military campaign against Iraq has given Ankara fresh hope of winning a firm date to open EU talks.
Diplomats hope the Greek and Turkish Cypriots will sign a framework accord for a political settlement on the island so that it joins the EU in May 2004 as a reunited single entity.
Cyprus has been divided since Turkey invaded the north in 1974 in response to a pro-Greek coup in Nicosia engineered by Greece’s then-ruling military junta.
If there is a deal, the Copenhagen summit could go down in history not only for concluding the EU’s biggest enlargement and erasing the Cold War divide, but also as a turning point in ties with Turkey.
Rasmussen remained confident the summit could wrap up the final details of the bloc’s ambitious eastward enlargement, but he warned candidates like Poland, which is pressing for more money when it joins the EU, that it risks missing the boat.
“All in all, I’m optimistic we can take this historic decision in Copenhagen,” he said.
“I envisage difficult negotiations but will stress that we will conclude with those ready, and I will not guarantee that 10 new countries will be on board on Friday,” Rasmussen warned.
EU leaders are set for a bruising summit battle with leading candidates — Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Cyprus and Malta — over the final financial terms for entry.
They should also endorse the goal of Romania and Bulgaria to join in 2007, if they are ready.
CASH DEMANDS: Poland has led demands that the EU offer new members the full 42.5 billion euros originally budgeted for enlargement in 1999.
A “final” Danish offer falls two billion short of that, but the EU’s main net contributors, notably Germany, say they can no longer afford more because of an economic slowdown and severe pressure on their budgets.
The German government source said the Danish offer, which Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder initially rejected last week, was “the upper limit”, but diplomats said they expected Schroeder to throw in some extra cash at the end.—Reuters