Turkey warns EU to exclude border issues from strategy

ANKARA is warning the European Commission against drawing a link between solving the dispute over Cyprus and steps to prepare Turkey for membership in a paper due to be published next week.


Government officials say the Commission risks strengthened ties with Ankara if it implies in its forthcoming accession plan that there is a connection between the peaceful "settlement of border disputes" and Turkey's progress towards joining the Union.

The EU executive will unveil an accession strategy for the country next Wednesday (8 November) setting out the reforms which Ankara must introduce before it can start negotiations with the Union.

In its draft report, which is still being finalised, the Commission stresses that Turkey should strive to resolve disputes relating to Cyprus and some Aegean islands through negotiation. But Ankara says the current wording suggests that the EU is imposing new preconditions before the country can forge closer ties with the Union.

Referring to the economic and political conditions for membership set by EU leaders in Copenhagen in 1993, one official said: "The Copenhagen criteria should be the only factor involved in the accession partnership and the opening of negotiations."

He added that if a reference to dispute settlement is included, the EU executive should confirm assurances given to Ankara by Finnish Prime Minister Paavo Lipponen at last December's Helsinki summit that border issues would be considered only when a decision was being taken on Turkey's accession.

Otherwise, say diplomats, EU-Turkish relations could return to the poor state they were in before that summit. "The main aim of Helsinki was that instead of waiting for a final solution to everything, it said we will start building good relations with Turkey and use the benefits of that to help resolve other issues," explained one.