Brussels, 04/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - The comments made by MEPs on opening accession talks with Turkey confirm the traditional and internal divisions of certain groups. The EPP-ED Group remains the most compact in its rejection of Turkish membership, while the Greens/EFA are the most in favour.
“I want to say how ashamed I was last night” at seeing that it took the Council thirty hours to “add a sentence” in the negotiating brief, said Joost Lagendijk of the Netherlands, Chair of the EP/Grand Turkish Assembly, speaking to the press on Tuesday. He felt that more “political leadership” was needed on both sides, and urged the EU leaders not to “base politics on polls” (in passing, he said: “I am not pessimistic about a referendum in France in ten years' time, as it will be a different Turkey by that time”). He also said Turkish decision-makers have shown proof of courage. Turks are used to negotiating “each point” but they have to tell their public that “negotiation” with the EU has a particular meaning: For Turkey, it is about proving that it has done what the EU asked it to do, and the only margin is the “timing”. In ten years from now, there will be no more “Chirac or Schüssel” in the EU, who will have been replaced by “a new generation of leaders”, and that will also be the case for Turkey, went on the German Green member, Cem Özdemir (of Turkish origin), who, speaking at the press conference, was highly critical of Austria's behaviour on Monday in Luxembourg (see other article). The idea of “privileged partnership” “has failed”. It is like someone who wants to become a member of a golf club but who is finally accepted to play mini-golf!, he exclaimed. Mr Özdemir also deplores the fact that Condoleezza Rice had felt it was necessary to interfere in the matter.
In the EPP-ED Group, President Hans-Gert Pöttering considers, on the other hand, that the possibility of a “privileged partnership” remains open, and welcomes the fact that the negotiation mandate stresses the importance of the EU's absorption capacity. This means that it will not be possible to conclude negotiations until there is a financial framework for the period after 2014, he states in a press release. In his group, CSU members Ingo Friedrich and Bernd Posselt, who are far more virulent, do not refrain from speaking of a “catastrophic” sign. The reaction of the Socialist Group is mitigated. They welcome negotiations but stress how complex they are. The Parliament will follow the process in an “intensive and rigorous” manner, President Martin Schulz warns, recalling that the recognition of Cyprus “is not subject to negotiation”. Austrian Social Democrat Hannes Swoboda slams the “highly regrettable behaviour of the Austrian Government in recent days”, all the more as it is a matter of the next EU Council Presidency. At the ALDE Group, President Graham Watson approves the fact that negotiations may now open, while warning that it is a question of Turkey joining “not today but in 2015 or 2020”. Italian Radical Emma Bonino says it is the EU's “soft power” that has allowed Turkey to make such significant progress in recent years. On the other hand, Alexander Graf Lambsdorff confirms in a press release that FDP representatives are opposed to the opening of accession talks with Turkey (see other article).