Athens, 24/11/2000 (Agence Europe) - The Greek Minister for Foreign Affairs Georges Papandreou, during a press conference in Athens with his deputy Elisavet Papzoi, asserted that Greece is ready to sign the EU/Turkey partnership agreement only if it clearly contains the conditions "agreed upon in the European Council in December 1999 in Helsinki" (see below). Greece is not in a hurry to sign, he stated, adding that, if the dossier "is not resolved under the French Presidency, it could be under the Swedish, or, the Belgian, or Danish or even Greek". Mr Papandreou considered excessive the strong reactions from Turkey to the reference to the Cypriot issue in the "Partnership" text proposed by the Commission, noting: "the basic principals outlined in the Helsinki resolution. If these principals are included in the partnership agreement then we have no problem".
EUROPE recalls that the conclusions of the Finnish Presidency after the Helsinki summit on the 10 and 11 December 1999, said with regard to Turkey, on the "Preparation for enlargement" chapter:
- point 12: the pre-accession strategy for Ankara "will include a strengthened political dialogue, centred on the progress to be achieves to answer the political criteria set for accession, in particular in relation to the issue of human rights and issues aimed at points 4 and 9 (a)";
- point 4: with regard to candidate countries, "the European Council insists over the principal of peaceful settlement of disputes in the United Nations Charter and immediately invites the candidate countries to do their utmost to resolve their possible border disputes, as well as other issues of the same kind. Without this, they should bring their dispute before the International Court of Justice within a reasonable timeframe. By the end of 2004 at the latest, the European Council will look at the situation with regards to the disputes that remain, in particular over their repercussion on the accession process and in order to promote their resolution through the International Court of Justice".
- point 9 (a): the European Council "welcomes the opening, on 3 December in New York, of the talks aiming for a global resolution to the Cypriot issue and expresses its firm support for the efforts deployed by the United Nations Secretary General to have this process completed".
On the other hand, after long talks, the Helsinki Conclusions do not cite, in point 12 (see above) point 9 (b), which asserts: the European Council "underlines that a political solution would facilitate the accession of Cyprus to the European Union. If no solution is found at the time of the completion of accession negotiations, the Council decision relating to the accession will be taken without the precedent constituting a prior condition. To make its decision the Council will take into account all the pertinent elements".
Furthermore, let us recall the Ankara (see EUROPE of 16 November, p.3) asserted in a press release from its Ministry for Foreign Affairs that it will continue to consider itself engaged only with regard to the Conclusion of the Helsinki Summit "and the correspondence over this issue and the talks between Turkey and the EU concerning the acceptance of these conclusions". The Minister referred, in his press release from last 8 November, to: - the press conference of Bulent Ecevit on 10 December 1999; - the letter addressed on 10 December of the same year to Mr Ecevit by Mr Lipponen as President of the European Council, and which is "an integral part of the acquis"; - the declaration made by Mr Lipponen to the European Parliament on 14 December; - the clarifications given on 9 December by Mr Solana and Mr Verheugen. According to the press agency ANA, the Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ismail Cem, told the press, during the Ministerial meeting in Sochaux (see other story) that Turkey is not in a hurry to see the adoption of "the partnership for accession" concerning it and that it awaits for its positions to be taken into account. According to the agency, the Minister avoided speculating over the duration of the process.