Brussels, 07/12/2006 (Agence Europe) - Turkey has offered to open one port and one airport to Cypriot ships and aeroplanes, a spokesman for the Finnish Presidency said on Thursday, although this has not been confirmed by Ankara. The Council and Commission have welcomed the news with satisfaction and caution, while awaiting clarification of the conditions and scope of Ankara's offer. The consequences of this offer on Turkey's negotiations on EU accession are still uncertain.
“Turkeys initiative is a positive step towards full implementation of the Ankara protocol, but still needs clarification,” said Finnish foreign minister Erkki Tuomioja in a press release. “If Turkey is ready for such an unconditional move, this positive step will influence the Council's discussions on the continuation of Turkey's EU accession process,” he added. The same message came from the Commission, where President José Manuel Barroso welcomed the Turkish proposal, hoping it would become perfectly clear. Commissioner Olli Rehn's spokeswoman had also previously stressed the need for clarification before the impact of the opening s suggested by Ankara could be assessed. The Commission proposed not to open eight key chapters of the negotiations and not to close any, until Turkey complied with its obligations on the Customs Union (see EUROPE 9317).
Meeting on Thursday, the Ambassadors of the 25 Member States postponed their discussion of this issue until Friday, in the hope that in the meantime more details would be made available by Turkey, whose offer “has sown confusion”, according to one diplomat. While foreign ministers are preparing to settle this issue on Monday, the current lack of clarity in the current talks does not look promising for decision-making. Pending clarification of all the elements of the Ankara proposal, Coreper and the Finnish EU Council Presidency are wondering how appropriate it would be to use the Commission's recommendation as a basis for discussions at the General Affairs Council next week, the diplomatic source explained.
Numerous questions are being raised about the opening of ports and airports. Some diplomats speak of temporary opening, valid for 2007 and concurrent with the search for an overall solution by the United Nations, while others consider that, although Turkey seems willing to open one of its ports unconditionally, it may state that an airport in Turkey can only be opened in exchange for the opening of an international airport in northern Cyprus. The Finnish presidency was still endeavouring to clarify these points at the time of going to press. Such conditionality could concern the airport of Ercan in the northern part of the island, on which discussions have already been held in the context of the stalled talks by the Finnish EU Presidency (EUROPE 9315). The possible exchange involving the opening of an international airport in the northern part of Cyprus nonetheless comes up against intransigence on the part of Nicosia. The spokesman for the Cypriot government told several press agencies on Thursday that “this could never happen”. A Cypriot veto to the lifting of the embargo on the northern part of the island is therefore still valid.
Bahadir Kaleagasi, the representative in Brussels for the Turkish industrial and business sector (TÜSIAD), said, however, on Thursday morning that “if there is no veto, there is no crisis”. Cyprus' blocking of the opening of direct trade with the northern part of the island is “detrimental to the EU's credibility as a union”, Mr Kaleagasi told several reporters, saying that a “unilateral movement on the part of Ankara would be temporary and subject to a response” from the EU and in particular from Cyprus. The Cypriot accession process has been “badly managed” deplored Mr Kaleagasi. Despite the rejection of the Annan plan by the Cypriots, they have nonetheless joined the EU, whereas Turkey, which responded to European request by giving clear support to the plan, has not managed to have the embargo on the Turkish Cypriot community lifted, although it was promised by the EU, he stressed. Turkey agreed not to make the question of Cyprus a question of “national pride” by supporting reunification of the island, but it is nonetheless a matter of “dignity”. A move forward in this dossier is a political rather than economic gesture as the chapters on which the Commission suggests not opening talks are, he says, “those where Turkey has made the most progress” and that a lack of immediate progress in these fields should not reduce the current volume of trade between the EU and Turkey.
Turkey's offer is a “significant turning point” in relations between the EU and Ankara, said Martin Schulz in a press release. The leader of the EP's Socialist group believes “The firm and united stance taken by the European Union has achieved its purpose”. And he went on, “Turkey has responded positively to our demand - but it must still respect the Ankara protocol in full and open all ports and airports”. It was “an important step, but it still does not go far enough”, said German Liberal MEP Silvana Koch-Mehrin. (ab)