By Daisy Ayliffe - 7th November 2006
Hannes Swoboda MEP fears the Cyprus issue will ultimately prove to be the thorn in Turkey’s side.
“I really do fear the Cyprus question could cause EU-Turkey talks to collapse. If Turkey does not move on this issue it will interrupt the talks,” Swoboda told the latest edition of the Parliament Magazine.
“I would say it is 50-50 that Cyprus will cause the talks to completely collapse,” the Austrian socialist MEP predicts.
“And would give the same odds on whether the Finnish presidency’s compromise plans will be accepted.”
On Monday evening the European commission stepped back from a confrontation with Ankara and called for more time to solve in impasse.
The EU executive had been considering whether to use Wednesday’s progress report to recommend the partial suspension of Turkey's membership talks because of its failure to open its ports to Cyprus.
But commission president José Manuel Barroso and enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn are said to be against sparking a crisis ahead of a summit of EU leaders in December, which is likely to decide on the issue.
Finnish plans to solve the Turkey–Cyprus impasse would see restrictions on the Turkish-run north of Cyprus cut back if Ankara agrees to open up its ports to the Greek Cypriots.
Swoboda says he can understand Turkish difficulty in accepting the EU’s latest proposals, but he firmly believes they will ultimately represent the only way forward.
“The problem is that the Turks do not want to give in to too much before they see any progress,” he explains. “But we want the Turks to see if they do not give in here, there will not be progress anywhere else.”
But the Austrian fears Brussels will have a tough time convincing Ankara to give more ground in the current critical atmosphere.
“The mood is changing in the European parliament,” he says. “It is more critical today than it was one or two years ago. Some of that has been caused by Turkish inaction on key reforms but it has also been caused by the conservative political groups within the EU unfairly influencing the mood. ”
“They are hiding behind specific arguments such as the Armenia issue – when really they should be more open about why they do not want Turkey to join. They do not want Turkey inside the EU because it is a big, poor, Muslim country.”
And Swoboda says the EU’s constant trickle of damning reports serves only to exacerbate the fearful, negative mood. He describes the recent Turkey report by centre-right Dutch MEP Camiel Eurlings as nonsense.
“It was not helpful,” Swoboda argues. “It is nonsense to have all of these reports. Turkish EU entry is a long term project so to have reports and permanent discussion is not helpful.”
“People must realise that the Turkey of tomorrow will only be accepted into the EU if it changes. All of the ups and downs in Eurlings report and the alterations made to it along the way created a tension which is not helpful in the long term.”
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