Turkey signalled its growing impatience with the European Union on Thursday night by warning that its ministers would not turn up in Luxembourg for membership talks until they are sent a copy of the ground rules.
Irritated by the EU’s failure to reach agreement on a framework for the talks, Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Abdullah Gul, declared he would remain in Turkey until he is sent a copy. ”Everyone knows there’s no point in going to Luxembourg without seeing this document,” Gul said, warning warned that the talks may fail to begin as planned on Monday.
Gul spoke out after Austria blocked an agreement on the ground rules for Turkey’s membership talks in a last-ditch attempt to downgrade it to associate EU membership. At a meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels, Austria demanded the talks should include — from the outset — ”alternatives” to full EU membership.
This forced Britain, which is chairing the talks, to convene an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Sunday night. Britain, which is Turkey’s leading champion in the EU, will be placed in the embarrassing position of telling Gul on Sunday night not to board his plane until the EU sorts out its differences. ”You can’t ask the Turks to turn up and then tell them to hang round in the waiting room while Europe sorts out its differences,” one EU diplomat said.
Turkey’s irritation had been mounting all day. Earlier the Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, called on European leaders to prove they are not running an exclusively ”Christian club”. ”If the EU is not a Christian club, this has to be proven,” Erdogan said during a visit to the Gulf.
There is speculation that Austria will cave in at the last minute. It may give ground if the EU is able to make encouraging noises about Croatia’s EU membership talks. These were suspended in March after the EU concluded that the country was failing to co-operate properly with the international war crimes tribunal in its attempts to put on trial a convicted war criminal, Ante Gotovina.
Carla del Ponte, the tribunal’s chief prosecutor, will visit Zagreb on Friday to assess whether Croatia is cooperating. Del Ponte will then report to a special taskforce of EU foreign ministers on Monday. The taskforce will then interview Croatian ministers.
Austria says there is no link between Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country, and Austria’s near neighbour, Croatia. But Wolfgang Schuessel, the Austrian Chancellor, accused the EU of ”double standards”. ”If we trust Turkey to make further progress, we should trust Croatia too,” Schuessel told the FT. ”It is in Europe’s interest to start negotiations with Croatia immediately.”
The chancellor also made clear that Austria wants Turkey to be offered less than full membership. ”We need an alternative that would ensure that Turkey would remain bonded as strongly as possible to the EU,” he said. His remarks infuriated other EU countries. ”I don’t think anyone is impressed by Austria’s attempts to blackmail us,” one source said.
But Austria’s hardline stance forced Britain to convene Sunday’s meeting because Austria is effectively asking the EU to rewrite the deal that European leaders offered Turkey last year. At their annual winter summit in December EU leaders raised the possibility of associate membership for Turkey but only if the talks fail after 10 to 15 years. Austria wants to turn last December’s deal on its head by spelling out associate membership from the start. Britain is hoping Austria will give ground on Sunday night, either because it is encouraged by movement on Croatia or because it does not want to be in a minority of one.
Erdogan pleaded with sceptics to see the benefits of admitting Turkey. ”What do you gain by adding 99% Muslim Turkey to the EU?” he asked. ”You gain a bridge between the EU and the 1,5-billion-strong Islamic world. An alliance of civilisations will start.” – Guardian Unlimited Â