Turkey's ambitions for EU membership suffer setback

Brussels - Turkey's ambitions to join the European Union suffered a setback Monday after EU foreign ministers, under pressure from France, dropped the term "accession" from a text referring to next week's talks with Ankara. Unlike a similar text approved a year ago, the "Council conclusions on enlargement" text approved by ministers on Monday refers to this month's "Intergovernmental Conferences with Turkey and Croatia" and omits the term "accession" when referring to such talks.
Council sources said the final draft of the text was amended to appease France, whose President Nicolas Sarkozy has emerged as one of the strongest opponents of Turkey's entry into the EU.
Britain and Sweden, which both want Turkey to join the 27-member bloc, are believed to have expressed strong reservations over the approved text.
In their conclusions, ministers also regretted "the limited progress achieved in political reform in Turkey in 2007."
"Significant further efforts are also needed in other areas such as judicial reform, the fight against corruption, minority rights and the strengthening of cultural rights, women's rights, children's rights, trade union rights and the civilian control of the military," the statement said.
Ministers also expressed disappointment over Turkey's failure to make "progress towards normalization of relations with the Republic of Cyprus" and called on Ankara "to unequivocally commit to good neighbourly relations and to the peaceful settlement of disputes" - a reference to the current problems it is facing with Kurdish rebels on its southern border with Iraq.
While ministers also dropped the term "accession" when referring to forthcoming talks with Croatia, the text commended the country "for the overall progress it continued to make in the past year," saying negotiations between Brussels and Zagreb were "on the right track."