Turkey, reassured on EU, backs ‘Club Med’ plan
Posted by meb at March 5th, 2008
Turkey is ready to take part in a planned Mediterranean union after receiving assurances that it is not meant as a substitute for Ankara’s eventual membership in the European Union, Turkish officials said on Tuesday.
The Mediterranean union is a pet project of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, a strong opponent of Turkey’s EU bid, but he has had to water down the original plan under pressure from Germany and other member states that felt it was too divisive.Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday they had reached a compromise on the proposal, but gave few details.
“We have no problem with the Mediterranean union. After all, Turkey is the country with the longest Mediterranean coastline. So we will of course look warmly on new projects, cooperation and solidarity in the region,” one Turkish diplomat told Reuters. “They [the French] have given us a guarantee that the Mediterranean union is not an alternative to Turkey’s EU project, they say that idea has now been abandoned. They are sincere in this.”
Some north European states such as Britain and Sweden were not keen on the idea because they suspected an attempt to find an alternative to Turkey’s bid for full membership in the EU. Spain and Italy publicly endorsed the idea, but have worked behind the scenes to dilute it into a political umbrella over the existing Euro-Mediterranean partnership for trade, political and cultural cooperation that involves the whole EU.
Faced with such resistance from Germany and other major EU states, French diplomats had already toured the Mediterranean, assuring Turkey it is not a plan B to replace its EU accession process and assuring Israel that it is not a substitute for closer bilateral ties with the EU.
Ankara initially saw Sarkozy’s proposal as an attempt to persuade Turkey to drop its bid to become a fully fledged EU member state. Turkey began EU entry talks in 2005, though they have been dogged by rows over Cyprus and human rights, and it is not seen joining the wealthy bloc before 2015, at the earliest. Ankara had previously begun work on only four negotiation chapters out of a total of 35 and has provisionally completed just one of them to date. The EU also decided in 2006 to block eight chapters connected with the bloc’s customs union due to Ankara’s refusal to allow Greek Cypriot ships and planes to enter its ports and airports.
Turkish officials say they do not expect swift progress on it but say France should try to organize preparatory meetings and give more detailed plans before Paris takes over the EU’s rotating presidency in July.
Sarkozy is expected to launch the union at a Paris summit on July 13-14 involving all 27 EU member states and Mediterranean rim countries, including Turkey.
source: Today’s Zaman
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