Luxembourg, 03/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - After lengthy and difficult discussions, EU foreign ministers agreed, on Monday evening, on a draft text fixing the future framework for membership talks with Turkey but, at the time of going to press (shortly before 19h00), it was still uncertain whether Ankara would accept this and whether Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül would go to Luxembourg to take part in a possible ceremony for opening talks on Monday evening. In the event of rejection by Turkey, it was not to be ruled out that the 25 would again review their work that evening, before possibly making a new offer to Turkey. A spokesperson for the Turkish prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, explained to Ankara that the EU had sent a draft text but that there was still no final agreement. “Discussions continue. There is still no compromise”, he said. He went on to add that “there is still no confirmation on when and how the foreign minister, Abdullah Gül, will go to Luxembourg”. The 25 were able to reach an agreement on the draft text after Austria had made its position considerably mellower. While, on Sunday evening and Monday morning, the Austrian foreign minister, Ursula Plassnik, continued to call for an “alternative” to full membership to be mentioned in the negotiation framework (in a written proposal, the Austrian delegation had gone as far as to suggest replacing the term “accession” by a simple reference to Article 49 of the EU Treaty), Austria then placed increasing emphasis on the EU's “absorption capacity”, calling for a more demanding wording on the matter. On this point, Austria seems to have been satisfied, thanks to a wording that strengthens the reference to the EU's absorption capacity, without however detracting from what was agreed in the European Council conclusions of December 2004. The compromise text therefore maintains that the “common objective of negotiations is accession” while stressing that negotiations are “an open-ended process the outcome of which cannot be guaranteed in advance”. The Austrian problem, however, was not the only problem facing the British Presidency on Monday. Another difficulty appeared when Turkey (in permanent contact with Jack Straw) announced that it wished to amend Article 5 of the negotiating brief. This article stipulates that Turkey should come gradually into line with EU policy toward third countries and with the positions that the EU takes within international organisations, including relating to future accessions by EU member states to such international organisations or to international arrangements. Turkey does not want this passage to be included, as it would allow Cyprus, for example, to join NATO. On the other hand, Cyprus, Greece and Malta insisted on keeping the paragraph, failing which they would block the whole of the text. On Monday evening, the British Presidency was in contact with Ankara to propose resolving the problem through a declaration by the 25 to reassure Turkey. It remains to be seen whether such a declaration will satisfy Ankara. In this case, it seemed very likely that Mr Gül would go to Luxembourg late that evening to take part in the opening of accession talks.