Brussels, 07/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - At their meeting in COREPER on Wednesday, EU negotiators resumed discussions over the EU's planned counter-declaration to the statement by Turkey on 29 July that it did not recognise the Republic of Cyprus. The British Presidency took note of progress at the foreign affairs summit in Newport, South Wales (EUROPE 9019, p.3) but said that various parts of the draft text had yet to be finalised, like the exact wording of the section on Turkey's recognition of the Republic of Cyprus. On Wednesday, Cyprus expressed dissatisfaction with the British Presidency's draft, calling for the word 'recognition' to be explicitly mentioned (the draft text talks of 'normalising relations between Turkey and the other Member States'). Cyprus wants the EU to create a special political mechanism for monitoring Turkey's implementation of the additional protocol to the Customs Union Agreement. In order to lift the deadlock, the British Presidency is continuing its bilateral consultations but at the end of the afternoon as we were going to press it was not clear whether the COREPER discussions would continue on into the evening.
Meanwhile, a poll commissioned by the German Marschall Fund, whose results were published on Wednesday, showed a reduction in support for the idea of Turkey joining the EU in the future, both in EU Member States and in Turkey itself. The poll revealed that 29% of the Europeans surveyed thought that Turkey joining the EU would be 'bad', 9% up on 2004. Some 42% believe that Turkey joining would be 'neither good nor bad'. Support for joining the EU in Turkey remains high, but has fallen 10% since last year, from 73% to 63%.