EU says Turkey entry talks set to slow down, not stop

Nicosia and Ankara blame each other for failure of Finnish proposal

Turkish women, supporters of the pro-Islamic Felicity Party, yesterday displayed signatures collected to demand that Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia museum, pictured in the background, be declared a mosque and opened to worship. Pope Benedict XVI, due to arrive in Turkey today, is expected to visit Hagia Sophia, a former Byzantine church and mosque, tomorrow.

By Zerin Elci and David Brunnstrom - Reuters

TAMPERE, Finland – EU accession talks with Turkey will not be frozen, but will move more slowly after Ankara’s failure to open its ports to ships from Cyprus, the European Union’s enlargement commissioner said yesterday.

EU president Finland failed to achieve a breakthrough yesterday in its final push to resolve the row between Turkey and Cyprus threatening to derail Ankara’s membership bid.

“Unfortunately, we have come to the conclusion that at this stage circumstances do not permit that an agreement could be reached during the Finnish presidency,” Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja said after separate meetings with the foreign ministers of Turkey and Cyprus.

Speaking after the talks on the sidelines of a EU-Mediterranean foreign ministers’ meeting in the town of Tampere, Tuomioja said the two were too far apart for a realistic prospect of success during Finland’s term as EU president, which ends on December 31.

EU officials have said failure to reach a deal before a December 6 deadline could mean at least partial suspension of Turkey’s membership talks launched last year.

Speaking after the breakdown of the talks, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said, “Negotiations will not be stopped or frozen, they will continue more slowly.” Foreign ministers of EU member states will decide how to proceed on December 11 after Commission recommendations.

Rehn said the Commission would work with the EU presidency to “manage the continuation of Turkey’s EU accession negotiations.” He added that “to encourage serious movement,” an EU summit next month should call for a resumption of talks on a settlement to the Cyprus dispute under UN auspices.

The EU has insisted that Turkey must open its ports to ships from Cyprus this year. Turkey says it will only do so if the EU ends the economic isolation of the Turkish-occupied north of Cyprus.

Gul told a news conference there would be no justification for freezing Turkey’s accession talks and accused Cyprus of “hijacking” the process. “(Cyprus) is a political problem, it is not part of the negotiation process,” he said.

Cypriot government spokesman Christodoulos Pasiardis said the Nicosia government would consult other EU members.

“Taking into account the Turkish refusal to meet its obligations and commitments, it is that things can’t continue as though nothing has happened,” he told Cypriot television.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel echoed his remarks. “If it stays this way until the end of the year, we cannot simply continue (with the membership talks) as before,” she told a Congress of her Christian Democrat party.

She reiterated the party’s position that Turkey should be offered “a privileged partnership” with the European Union, not full membership.

(Additional reporting by Sakari Suoninen in Helsinki, Hatice Aydogdu in Ankara and Michele Kambas in Nicosia.)