Main focus of Tuesday, December 12, 2006

The EU assents to the partial freezing of discussions with Ankara

Following the recommendations of the European Union, the EU Ministers of Foreign Affairs decided, on Monday, December 11th, to slow down negotiations on Turkey's EU accession. They decided to suspend 8 out of the 35 thematic chapters of the negotiations to try and constrain Turkey to the opening of its ports and airports to Greek Cypriots.

Tribune de Genève - Switzerland

"It will not be a suspension, even less a rupture. Rather, it will be something like a 'slowing-down' of negotiations", explains Jean-François Verdonnet. "The government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan tried to elude the crisis with a last minute proposition to open a port and airport to Cypriots. Initially saluted by Brussels as an 'important step', the offer was then judged too weak and too vague. The Turkish, notably, did not specifying whether their offer was unconditional, or subordinate to the end of isolation regarding the Turkish part of Cyprus. Resistance has also come from inside. Insufficient for Brussels, the concession has been judged excessive by Ankara. ... The Turkish polemic, being electoral in part, is not at all artificial. It reveals tight constraints on the Cyprus question that the European summations now have little chance of slackening." (12/12/2006)

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El País - Spain

The daily considers that the partial suspension of accession negotiations reveals "a profound division among the 25 Members concerning a vision of Europe and its limits. [The German Chancellor] Merkel does not want Turkey in the EU, at once for internal reasons and because this country would replace Germany as the most populated country in the Union. Greece, Cyprus and Austria wanted an immediate suspension of negotiations. Spain, because of the Mediterranean's weight within the EU and the European opening-up to the Muslim world, was the United Kingdom, were keen to dilute European integration in a big market, was opposed to any sanctions. In the end, a very communitarian agreement has been reached consisting of avoiding the fundamental problem, which is what we want to do with Turkey. ... And the Turkish case raises the question of what we want to do with the EU". (12/12/2006)

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Politiken - Denmark

The paper disapproves of the EU decision. "It is really troubling that many heads of state – our own first and foremost - have reacted so short-sightedly and so paradoxically. The EU is practically sending Turkey a signal that it will never be a member of the EU. The main problem is the new list of EU requirements - and not the behaviour of Turkey. It appears as if all the EU states would rather forget how exhausting the process of entry into Europe has been up to now, and how much is at stake when new borders have to be drawn. It is wrong to put the relationship of the EU to Muslim states on a par with the Cold War. At the same time, you have to see that the conflict in the Middle East goes way back. Its solution has a major impact on our own future. It is also in our own interest to hope for democracy, modernization and cohesion for our region." (12/12/2006)

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La Tribune - France

Daniel Vigneron, chief editor of the daily, believes that the accession of a reformed Turkey can allow the EU to change its status. "The Union is no doubt an economic power. But will it remain so in 30 years time? On a political level it barely is anymore. Not only because it was unable to pool together the substantial defence resources available or to define sufficiently federative geo-strategic interests, but also because it did not find the legitimacy to resolve conflicts in the most explosive zone of the region, the Middle-East. Strengthened by an incontrovertible Muslim Turkey in the region and Nato's No.2 military power, endowed with human and economic potential of no equivalent on the continent, the EU can find the means to exercise its power on this terrain. The price to pay, that of enlargement - and not a dilution- of its identity, is not high. The future has a name: the Euro-Mediterranean Union.” (12/12/2006)

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