Brussels, 29/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday at Coreper, Austria continued to express reserve regarding the adoption of a negotiating brief for Turkey, compelling the British Presidency to convene an extraordinary meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Sunday evening. During this special meeting, that will take the form of an informal dinner less than 24 hours before negotiations are scheduled to commence on Monday afternoon, the Twenty-Five will seek to find a formula that will satisfy Austria - which is calling for the negotiating mandate to mention an alternative to membership, for example in the form of a “privileged partnership” - without, however, displeasing Turkey, which has already announced that it would refuse to negotiate if the EU mandate contains any objective other than accession. Austria is all the more isolated within the Council on this precise claim as the EU heads of state and government (including Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel) have confirmed on two occasions - at the European Councils of December 2004 and June 2005 - that the common aim of negotiation is accession, although they stressed that the process was open-ended and that results could not be guaranteed in advance. On Sunday evening, ministers were under considerable pressure as, if there is no solution acceptable for Ankara, it can be practically ruled out that the Turkish Foreign Minister, Abdullah Gül, will go to Luxembourg on Monday morning to take part in the ceremony for opening the talks, scheduled at the end of the afternoon. On Thursday, the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, again restated that his country was calling for “full EU membership” and that he therefore rejected any form of “privileged partnership”. “We shall continue the talks (…) and Turkey will accept nothing less than full accession to the Union”, Mr Erdogan said.
Although Austria continues to deny any formal link between the two issues, it is obvious that its final position on the mandate for negotiation with Turkey, on Sunday evening or Monday morning, will no doubt depend on the attitude that the EU adopts on Monday at the General Affairs Council with regard to Croatia.
Austria is one of the most fervent supporters of the Croatian cause and has long insisted on opening negotiations with this country immediately. The mandate for opening accession talks with Croatia was adopted this spring but the EU is waiting for Zagreb to improve its cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), in particular concerning the arrest of Croatian General Ante Gotovina, before giving its go-ahead to talks. In an interview with The Financial Times, on Thursday, Chancellor Wolfgang Schüssel denounced the EU's “double standards” with regard to the two candidates, Turkey and Croatia. “If we trust Turkey to make further progress we should trust Croatia too … It is in Europe's interest to start negotiations with Croatia immediately”, he said, going on to add: “It is not fair to leave Croatia in an eternal waiting room. I don't understand the logic at all”.
ICTY General Prosecutor Carla del Ponte was in Zagreb on Thursday and Friday to gain a clear idea of the progress made by the Croatian authorities. She will brief the EU on this over the weekend and also most probably during a meeting of the EU Task Force on Croatia, which is to meet on Sunday evening or Monday morning in Luxembourg, just before the meeting of the General Affairs/External Relations Council. If the Task Force (composed of British, Austrian and Finnish ministers, for the successive EU Council presidencies, as well as Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn and High Commissioner for CFSP Javier Solana) were to conclude that Zagreb is now cooperating sufficiently with the ICTY, then the EU foreign affairs ministers could decide on Monday to send a positive message to Zagreb, for example deciding to open accession talks before the end of the year. Much will depend therefore on the content of Ms Del Ponte's report.