EU seeks closer ties with neighbours, split on how

BRUSSELS, Sept 3 (Reuters) The European Union and its neighbours held their first high-level meeting today, calling for closer ties but split on how to advance a relationship key to energy, trade and security cooperation.

Ministers from the 27-state EU gave differing views at a conference in Brussels as to whether to stress relations with eastern neighbours from the former Soviet Union or those of the south in the West Asia and North Africa.

They also differed on whether closer cooperation under the so-called European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) should be seen as a route to possible membership of the EU.

Britain and Poland and Baltic EU states said such a possibility should remain open to at least some neighbours, but Germany said the ENP had nothing to do with EU enlargement.

The ministers gathered to respond to a paper published in December by the EU's executive Commission proposing more economic and trade integration, easier access to visas and scholarships, greater political cooperation and additional financing mechanisms to support reform in neighbouring states.

A top priority for the EU is secure supply of energy through transit states and from further afield.

Benita Ferrero-Waldner, EU commissioner responsible for the neighbourhood policy, was looking at a possible ''neighbourhood energy agreement'' and launching a study to see where legal arrangements fell short and how they could be strengthened.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso stressed that the ENP was not ''a one-size-fits-all policy'' and how close a neighbour's ties became with the bloc depended on its aspirations and how far it aligned itself with EU norms.

''I expect we will see...as many different types of relationship developing as we have partners,'' he said.

''EU DOOR REMAINS OPEN'' Britain's Minister for Europe Jim Murphy said there should be no bar on EU membership for neighbours that met EU criteria.

''For those countries looking ahead to a broader perspective, the door to EU membership remains open,'' he said.

Polish Foreign Minister Anna Fotyga said membership should be an option for some, naming ''Ukraine and probably Moldova,'' but not others.

Germany's Europe Minister Guenter Gloser said that while the Neighbourhood Policy was making a ''tremendous contribution'' to promoting security and prosperity it had ''absolutely nothing to do with future prospects of joining the EU''.

Several EU neighbours reiterated their EU aspirations.

Moldovan Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Stratan called the December EU proposals on ENP a step forward, but added: ''It still does not meet our expectations.

''Although Moldova has declared for years European integration as a key priority...during all of this time the EU has avoided discussions with Moldova on this subject.'' French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who opposes Turkey's EU bid by arguing it is not geographically in Europe, has proposed a ''Mediterranean Union'' that would focus on curbing illegal migration and terrorism and promoting economic development.

Sarkozy has said he wants membership of such a union to be as wide as possible -- thus including Israel and its coastal neighbours who are already in the ENP -- tackling problems ranging from the environment to the West Asia peace process.

Such talk has heightened complaints from EU newcomers in Central Europe and their neighbours who see the bloc as too focused on the Mediterranean at their expense.

REUTERS PY KN2104