Brussels, 04/10/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is expected to give its green light to opening accession negotiations with Turkey, which will be dependent on strict conditions. The terms of the opinion are not expected to be finalised by the College of Commissioners until Wednesday. The Heads of cabinet of the Commissioners launched long preparatory discussions on Monday. Their work had not finished as we went to press. The latter will debate how opening negotiations will not prejudge their conclusions, namely that Turkey will not have a guarantee of accession following the years of negotiation. They will also outline an a recommendation that negotiations could be suspended, even stopped if the Commission or Council are not satisfied with Turkey's attitude. These two provisions, the uncertainty of the result and possibility of suspending or halting negotiations have underpinned the last few years of accession negotiations but were never explicitly explained. The EU has inserted a reinforced safeguard clause for Bulgaria and Romania , which was not there in the previous negotiations: if the of the eve of the expected date for accession these countries have not implemented the promised reforms, the European Union cold postpone accession. Turkey could be subject to an even stricter clause. On Monday during the hearing, Commissioner-designate Olli Rehn affirmed that they wanted to take into account on Wednesday the fact that the EU had to meet its historical commitment but that the Commission had to include a human rights monitoring clause According to the Turkish agency Anatolia, the Turkish minister of affairs said that there should not be a special clause for Turkey. Reports on Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria were presented on Wednesday by Romano Prodi and Günter Verheugen at the Conference of Presidents of the European Parliament (open on this occasion to all MEPs), just after their adoption by the Commission, in principle at the end of the morning.
On Monday in Prague, according to AFP, Chancellor Schröder declared that there were some good chances of finding the necessary unanimity at the summit on 17 December to open negotiations.
On Sunday in an interview with Bild am Sonntag, Mr Verheugen announced that the report would be extremely critical, more critical than the majority of observers thought…which will not be easy for Turkey to accept, going on what the Commission had been written in the report. At this stage, nothing has been decided, as it will be up to the College of Commissioners to put the final touches to the report during their meeting on Wednesday. Verheugen asserted that he had tried his best to get a recommendation formulated, which would attain broad consensus. He added in the context of Turkey's accession not being possible before 2015, the had chosen the most cautious approach possible and that the negotiation process with Turkey would obviously be an "open process" as it was in the nature of things that a negotiations result is not established just when they began. The Commissioner warned that any decision could be understood by Turkey to be a refusal, which would mean the end of the reform process in the country. The whole region would certainly lose stability. In the long term, even Europe's security could be in danger.
Meanwhile, the Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan refuted the thesis put forward by Mr Verheugen that the result of the negotiation would be open. Mr Erdogan warned that "the only objective of the negotiation that we accept is that of full accession membership". He said in an interview with the German weekly Der Spiegel that there was no third way for them, no partnership with different conditions. Mr Erdogan affirmed that the duration of the negotiations was obviously a question that could be discussed, whether it would be five, seven or ten was an open question, he said. Postponing the beginning of the negotiations until ratification of the European Constitution would not be possible at all. He added that the conclusions of the European Council of Copenhagen of December 2002 were clear, that the negotiations had to begin straight away. Mr Erdogan concluded that Turkey was on the way to becoming a member of the European Union and that this process was irreversible given that accession negotiations were beginning and that they would have a new European Union and a new Turkey.
In the meantime, on of the best-known entrepreneurs in Turkey, Ischak Alaton (Head of Alarko Holding) informed the Stuttgarter Zeitung on Monday that his country was not yet ready to join Europe and that a "mind-set revolution" was needed in society and within Turkish bureaucracy in preparation for Europe. Despite these difficulties, it would be wise if the December European Council gave the go-ahead for beginning accession negotiations because if that failed, the consequences would be "catastrophic". "If Europe ejects us, it will be a shock", he warned and Turkey would be destabilised as the reform process would receive a blow and could go backwards.
Socialist Senator, former guardian of the Seals and former president of the Constitutional Council, Robert Badinter said that the European Council's decision on 17 December on the opening of accession negotiations with Turkey was expected to be proceeded by a debate and an "indicative vote" at the French parliament. Jacques Chirac's proposal to hold a referendum at the end of the negotiation with Ankara was good but was not sufficient, Badinter declared on EUROPE 1 radio on Saturday. (Jacques Chirac has said that he supports accession of Turkey, and also sought an amendment to the French constitution to make referendums compulsory on any further EU accessions: Editor's note. Mr Badinter pointed out that at the end of the accession negotiations there had never been a candidate that had been rejected (but Norway, following successful negotiations, twice refused to join following national referendums: Editor's note).