TURKEY AND THE EU (3)

I don't know if E.U. Foreign Ministers read my blog (yes, I know they should, but ...), but they have just decided to put accession talks with Turkey on ice for four months. That means that they won't start again until after the German elections in September. Angela Merkel is the most influential sceptic about Turkey's place in the E.U., and she doesn't want the Turkish issue to flare up during the campaign. Recent events in Turkey will have strengthened her view that Turkey should remain outside. Austria and the Netherlands (plus others?) seem to agree.

Although they officially continue, the accession talks look further and further away from completion. They started for Turkey in 2005, at the same time as those for Croatia. Yet while Croatia will join as the 28th Member State on 1 July, Turkey's talks have been stuck for the past three years. Only thirteen of the 35 "chapters" have been opened, and eight are completely frozen because of the Cyprus dispute. Only one chapter, on science and research, has been closed.

Saying no to Turkey would be the right decision, in my view, as I have said. But the E.U. seems loth to say it. I suppose Member States are hoping that Turkey will eventually get the message and break off the talks themselves.

Walter Blotscher