By Bruno Waterfield - 1st December 2004
Centre-right MEPs are pushing Europe’s leaders to keep EU membership talks with Turkey “open” ahead of a December 17 summit that will seal Ankara’s European fate.
The European Parliament is set to vote on a Brussels recommendation that EU entry negotiations be opened to Turkey.
MEPs are divided on the issue with the parliament’s largest political group, the centre-right EPP, stressing that a decision must leave Europe’s options open.
Parliament’s foreign policy committee on Tuesday voted against a resolution suggesting alternatives to full membership should Turkey fail to make the EU grade.
MEPs voted by 46 votes against and 30 in favour of an amendment that “other options should be considered such as a privileged partnership” in European Commission proposals.
But demands for a partnership option is set to force its way back on the parliament's agenda during a December plenary session just days before the EU summit.
Centre-right committee chairman, Elmar Brok, is a supporter of an alternative for EU entry for Turkey should Ankara fail to meet stringent membership criteria set in Brussels.
He is pushing EU leaders to reinforce Brussels caveats that Turkey’s membership is hedged with conditions and is not guaranteed.
“The outcome of negotiations must remain open and become clear also in the position of the European Parliament,” he said on Wednesday.
“[Europe’s leaders] must with the decision on December 17 take into account the openness of negotiations and, concomitantly, take into account different options than full membership into its mandate.”
The committee decided by 50 votes to 18 with 6 abstentions to open Turkey talks with the "ambition" of EU entry.
“The opening of negotiations will be the starting point for a long-lasting process that by its very nature is an open-ended process and does not lead ‘a priori’ and automatically to accession,” states the committee report.
“The objective of negotiations is Turkish EU membership but… the realisation of this ambition will depend on the efforts of both sides; accession is thus not the automatic consequence of the start of the negotiations."
Europe’s leaders are expected to back the start of EU membership talks with Turkey, with entry conditional on tough human rights and reform demands.
Any possible EU rendez-vous for Ankara is also likely to be set at least a decade away or as late as 2020.
But calls from French and German right-wingers for a “privileged partnership” with Turkey have been gaining ground: Austria backs such a proposal, along with Cyprus.
Draft proposals circulated by the Dutch EU presidency on Monday will require Ankara to recognise Cyprus and accept possible permanent restrictions on the movement of Turkish workers in the EU.
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