EU wrangles over future of Turkey talks

By Staff
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BRUSSELS, Dec 11 (Reuters) European Union foreign ministers wrangled today over how hard to penalise Turkey for failing to normalise trade with Cyprus at the start of a week that could derail Ankara's troubled entry negotiations.

EU countries are split between some who would shed no tears if talks with the large, Muslim nation collapsed, and others who say Europe must embrace a key strategic partner to bridge the Western and Islamic worlds and secure a future energy hub.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said positions were probably too far apart for agreement to be reached on Monday, raising the spectre of a crisis summit of the 25-nation bloc on Turkey from Thursday.

''We must not destroy in a few days something that has grown over many years,'' Steinmeier told reporters on arrival. ''This is not, as people in some member states demand, a discussion about breaking off the accession process.'' The executive European Commission has proposed a partial freeze on Turkey's membership talks to punish it for failing to open its ports and airports to traffic from new EU member Cyprus, as it is obliged to do under a customs union.

Cyprus, Greece and Austria said last week that was not enough and called for a new deadline for Ankara to end the ports stand-off, while Britain, Italy, Sweden and other supporters of Turkey said the EU executive's proposal was too harsh.

Turkey, which does not recognise the Greek Cypriot government, has said it will start opening ports if the EU makes good on a 2004 pledge to end the economic isolation of Turkish Cypriot northern Cyprus, which Nicosia is blocking.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said the decision had ''ominous potential'' to reshape his country's ties with the bloc.

''Pressuring Turkey to fulfil unilateral conditions while ignoring other obligations carries the risk of derailing the process,'' he wrote in the International Herald Tribune.

''PRETEXTS'' Highlighting differences, Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot said he wanted 10 negotiating chapters, or policy areas, to be suspended rather than the eight proposed by the Commission, with a review date for member states to check Turkey's compliance.

Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said part of the negotiations should be put into ''dry dock'' and the EU should conduct another assessment in 2008.

On the other side, Britain, Turkey's most vocal supporter, says Brussels' proposal is too harsh, arguing that only three chapters are relevant to the Cyprus trade issue.

Cyprus has been split since Turkish troops invaded in 1974 after a brief Greek Cypriot coup backed by Greece. The EU admitted the divided island as a member in 2004, represented only by the Greek Cypriot government.

The Commission's proposal would slow the 14-month-old talks, due anyway to last more than a decade, but not kill them. But Gul said some in the EU were using Cyprus as an excuse.

''In an age of transparency, this is not the time to hide behind pretexts to derail Turkey's accession process,'' he said.

Ankara made an oral offer last week to open a major port to traffic from Cyprus and said it would do more if the EU allowed direct trade with the Turkish Cypriots. But EU President Finland said that was not enough and Cyprus rejected the offer.

Turkey's Foreign Ministry made a rare appeal for unity among state institutions, including the powerful military, after criticism of its offer to the EU from the powerful army General Staff and President Ahmet Necdet Sezer.

''Efforts to cause a crisis of confidence between state institutions at this time ... do not serve the high interests of our country,'' the ministry said in a statement late yesterday.

REUTERS BDP KP1735

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