France gives Turkish EU hopes reprieve

By John Thornhill in Paris and Daniel Dombey in London
Published: May 30 2007 03:00 Last updated: May 30 2007 03:00
Nicolas Sarkozy, France's new president, has given Turkey's European Union hopes a temporary reprieve, despite his fierce opposition to Ankara joining the 27-member bloc.
In the run-up to a June summit, Mr Sarkozy has decided to focus his attention on efforts to agree a new EU treaty rather than on Turkey.
As a result, the EU is set to continue with plans to open negotiations with Ankara in up to three new areas on June 26, just after the summit.
"My priority is the success of the German presidency [of the EU] and the European council on June 21 and 22. What do we have to do to try to break the institutional blockage," Mr Sarkozy said on Monday after talks in Paris with Romano Prodi, Italy's prime minister.
EU diplomats said that, with the risk of a French veto disappearing, they were now hopeful of beginning negotiations on at least one and perhaps all three of the areas pencilled in for talks between the EU and Turkey:statistics, financial control and economic and monetary policy.
"Politically it's important that we open at least one, and two should be achievable," said one EU diplomat.
Turkey needs to conclude talks in 35 such "negotiating chapters" before it can become a member but only two have been opened since the membership process began in October 2005.
Officials from the UK and the European Commission - traditionally Ankara's greatest champions within the EU - have also become more downbeat about Turkey's long-term prospects and limit their ambitions to "muddling through" this year.
Turkey's supporters hope that the new government that emerges from elections scheduled for July 22 will be able to breathe life into the country's faltering reform process.
But against the backdrop of the recent face-off between the Turkish army and the governing AKP, many diplomats say that a coup or even an incursion by the Turkish army into northern Iraq would signify the demise of Turkey's membership hopes.
The EU is likely to have an in-depth discussion about the future of EU enlargement at its December summit, with some of Ankara's supporters already arguing that Turkey should be granted two or three more years before a decision is made on whether it can ever be a full member.
Mr Sarkozy is keen to push the idea that Turkey should be offered a privileged partnership with the EU instead.
He says it could play a big role in a Mediterranean Union he is proposing to create to deal with regional issues, such as trade, immigration, and economicdevelopment.
The French president says that the Mediterranean Union could embrace seven EU members - France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Malta, Cyprus, and Greece - as well as Turkey and several north African countries.
On Sunday Mr Sarkozy sent Jean-David Levitte, his top diplomatic adviser, to Ankara in an attempt to avoid an open diplomatic split with Turkey.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007