By Bruno Waterfield - 28th June 2004
Strong US backing for Turkey’s European membership bid has turned up the temperature on a hot topic for the EU’s incoming Dutch presidency.
The Hague takes the helm of the EU’s six month rotating presidency on Thursday with Europe’s next wave of enlargement high on the agenda.
Europe’s leaders are set to debate Ankara’s bid for Turkey to join the EU as early as 2010 at a winter summit and a new Franco-US rift will not make the task any easier.
French leader Jacques Chirac on Monday publicly upbraided American president George W Bush after the US pressed Turkey’s EU case.
Bush arriving for a NATO summit in Istanbul attempted to heal US-Turkey rifts over Iraq by calling on Europe to give Ankara a clear date for EU membership.
“I will remind the people of this good country that you ought to be given a date by the EU for your eventual acceptance into the EU,” he said.
The US intervention has irritated Chirac amid general European concern over Turkey’s human rights record and opposition in France to an Islamic country joining the elite EU club.
“Not only did he go too far, he ventured into territory which is not his concern,” the French president said.
“It would be like me telling the US how to run its affairs with Mexico.”
Paris also fears a shift in the EU's balance of power if Turkey joins, the country's 66 million people and accelerating growth rate would make it a major European player.
Votes at the EU's key decision-making institution the council of ministers are weighted by population size and Turkey's presence would push France, with 60.4m citizens from second to third place.
Turkey is pushing for a green light to EU membership in December after five years as a candidate – and Ankara will insist it has carried out a raft of EU-driven reforms.
The Netherlands EU presidency must broker tough talks the membership bid against a background of opposition in Germany and France.
Bush’s contribution to the debate is likely to harden attitudes among critics – fuelling fears that Ankara will be allowed to join because of US pressure to build an eastern bulwark against Middle East unrest.
Turkey’s shared border with Iraq and NATO membership make the country strategically key to efforts to secure a Baghdad government and bring peace to the region.
But concern over Ankara’s human rights and reform record are expected to be highlighted in a commission report on Turkey’s EU readiness in October.
Europe’s leaders will then decide whether to open the EU membership process in December.
“Turkey has made considerable progress in a relatively short time-span… I am confident that further progress will be made in the coming six months,” Dutch foreign minister Bernard Bot said last week.
“We have still six months ahead of us to evaluate the situation. Then we will see whether Turkey is ready or not.”
Have your say...
Please enter your comments below.