Turkey Inches Toward EU, Clouded by French Objections

By James G. Neuger

Dec. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Turkey inched ahead with its bid to enter the European Union, in talks increasingly clouded by French President Nicolas Sarkozy's determination to make sure the country never gets in.
Negotiations started today over aligning Turkey's regulations with the EU in the areas of consumer protection and transport and energy networks. Turkey has now started talks in six of the bloc's 35 policy areas and completed one.
Under French pressure, the EU has shifted the negotiations into a lower gear, a sign of rising opposition in the heart of Europe to letting in a predominantly Muslim country with a standard of living less than a third of the EU level.
``Certain member states are trying to erode our political and judicial position,'' Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan told a Brussels press conference. ``Such attitudes are not proper and do not reflect a responsible approach.''
Turkey has made scant progress toward joining since embarking on the EU entry marathon in 2005. The bloc froze negotiations in eight policy areas last year to punish Turkey for refusing to trade with the Greek-speaking Republic of Cyprus, part of the EU since 2004.
Negotiations in two or three more areas might get under way in the first half of next year, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said.
Alternative Union
Sarkozy, elected in May on a wave of French anti-Turkey sentiment, says Turkey's place is in an alternative ``Mediterranean Union'' and has vetoed talks in policy areas that would lead directly to EU membership.
``Must Europe enlarge indefinitely and, if yes, what will the consequences be?'' Sarkozy said last week after persuading the EU to set up a blue-ribbon study group that he expects to challenge Turkey's fitness to join.
Only 21 percent of Europeans want Turkey to become a member, according to a September poll by the German Marshall Fund. European attitudes have darkened the anti-EU mood in Turkey, where only 40 percent of Turks think membership would be a ``good thing,'' down from 54 percent last year and 73 percent in 2004, the poll found.
Even Turkish schoolchildren are hearing of the broadsides by Sarkozy and other anti-Turkey politicians in Europe, making it harder for the government to amass support to modernize the economy along EU lines, Babacan said.
`Negative Impact'
Such ``provocations'' stir feelings among Turks ``that they are unwanted, and that in turn has a negative impact on their position toward the EU,'' Babacan said.
Babacan, Rehn and Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis Amado, the chairman of today's meeting, all backed the ``accession'' process, using the jargon that France forced the EU to strip from the preparatory documents.
Diverging public opinion in Turkey and Europe threatens to breed a ``dangerous situation,'' Amado said.
Rehn, the EU commissioner shepherding the talks, voiced concern that the ``political atmospherics'' between Turkey and EU capitals are damaging the entry process and said the EU needs to be fair to Turkey.
``At the same time, we need to be firm and emphasize conditionality and that's why we encourage Turkey to relaunch the reform process in full,'' Rehn said. As a sign of support for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's EU strategy, the European Commission's president, Jose Barroso, will visit Turkey early next year, he said.
Hammering home a point he often makes in Brussels, Babacan said the Turkish government's plans to upgrade the economy and enhance civil rights won't be blown off course by the souring mood.
EU Subsidies
For example, Babacan said, today's start of talks on linking Turkey's transport and energy networks to the European grid makes Turkey eligible for EU subsidies to upgrade its infrastructure.
Babacan gave no timetable for meeting the EU's demand that Turkey rewrite a section of the penal code that has been used to prosecute authors who challenged the Turkish orthodoxy that that the World War I massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks was not genocide. One journalist convicted under the law, Hrant Dink, was later murdered by a teenage nationalist.
Divided Cyprus
The status of Cyprus also remains an obstacle for Turkey. Turkey's military has occupied the northern part of the Mediterranean island since a 1974 invasion in response to a Greek-backed coup.
The dividing line hardened in 2004, when Greek-speaking Cypriots rejected a unification proposal that had the backing of the Turkish side. As a result, Cyprus joined the EU without the Turkish-speaking north of the island, which remains fenced off in the only disputed border in the EU.
Skirmishes between the Turkish army and Kurdish rebels operating out of northern Iraq played no role in today's talks. The conflict with the Kurds didn't come up and Babacan said Turkey isn't relying on military force alone to pacify the border.
An EU statement yesterday called on the Turkish military to exercise restraint, while acknowledging Turkey's right to combat terrorists.
To contact the reporter on this story: James G. Neuger in Brussels at jneuger@bloomberg.net .