By Gemma Lougheed - 20th October 2005
German chancellor-elect Angela Merkel has contradicted outgoing leader Gerhard Schroeder on Turkey, saying her position on Ankara's EU membership has not changed from that of offering a privileged partnership.
Merkel is still in favour of a privileged partnership instead of full membership despite the start of entry talks just over two weeks ago on October 3.
Merkel, who actively campaigned against Turkey joining the EU, told Schroeder at a cross party conference, that he ‘had gone too far’ by saying that a privileged partnership was no longer an option.
Merkel’s conservative CDU party has said that while it respected that the EU will enter into talks with Ankara, its position on Turkey had not changed.
Meanwhile, Austria, also pushing for a privileged partnership for Ankara, has said it will permanently ban Turkish workers, according to Austrian Prime Minister Wolfgang Schussel in an interview with Die Welt newspaper.
Schussel said that if Turkey entered the EU, Austria would put in place a 'permanent protection clause' for its labour market.
"We will very certainly not be able or willing open the Austrian labour market for, theoretically, millions of Turkish labourers," said Schussel.
Schussel also said that after the opening of talks with Ankara on October 3, Danish and French prime ministers publicly supported Vienna's resistance against Ankara's full membership.
Austria is home to an estimated 200,000 Turks, Europe's third-largest expatriate Turkish community after Germany and France.
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