Brussels, 27/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - Although it is isolated, Austria is continuing to call for the EU's mandate for accession negotiations with Turkey ("negotiation framework") not to stipulate solely the objective of accession, but also to mention other alternatives, such as a privileged partnership. The bilateral consultations underway between the UK Presidency of the EU and Austria have apparently failed to move the situation forward. "Nothing has changed" on the Austrian position, an Austrian spokesperson stated on Tuesday. The British and Austrian ambassadors held a bilateral meeting on Monday. "The meeting was positive and constructive. We now have a clear idea of what the Austrians want", was all that a spokesperson for the Presidency would say on the subject. The Presidency intends to present a new compromise text at the forthcoming meeting of Coreper, which is scheduled for Thursday. If the meeting of the ambassadors fails to lead to an agreement on the negotiation framework, an extraordinary meeting of the foreign ministers could take place on Sunday 2 October in order to resolve the issue and adopt the negotiation mandate- in time for the opening of accession negotiations, which is scheduled for 3 October in Luxembourg. It is unimaginable that the "General Affairs/External Relations" Council should still be discussing the negotiation framework on Monday morning, as the Turkish delegation would certainly not travel to Luxembourg without the guarantee that all obstacles had then removed and that talks would definitely open on Monday afternoon.
Officially, Austrian diplomats deny that Vienna has established a "formal link" between the Turkey issue and the opening of the accession negotiations with Croatia, but the two dossiers are well and truly linked in the consultations underway. "We feel that developments in Croatia in recent weeks have been enough to justify starting accession negotiations now", said the Austrian Minister for foreign affairs, Ursula Plassnik, in Tuesday's Financial Times. A lot will depend on the public prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Carla del Ponte, who is to return a new opinion on the attitude of the Croatian authorities and their level of cooperation with the ICTY in the next few days. The UK Presidency intends to hold a ministerial meeting of the EU Task Force on Croatia before 3 October (very likely on 2 October). The Task Force will bring together the British, Finnish and Austrian foreign ministers, together with High Representative Javier Solana and the Commissioner for enlargement, Olli Rehn. According to the UK Presidency, it is highly likely that Ms del Ponte will take part in this meeting personally, in order to report back after her important visit to Zagreb on 30 September. If Ms del Ponte is positive on the whole of the dossier, the Task Force may recommend that Monday's "General Affairs/External Relations" Council set a date now for negotiations to open. However, if the opinion of the public prosecutor is less favourable, it is more likely that the Council will decide on Monday to send a positive and encouraging signal to Croatia, possibly in the form of a commitment to open talks by the end of the year. It is worth noting that the negotiation framework for Croatia has already been adopted by the Council.