EU takes landmark step towards Turkish membership

BRUSSELS - The European Union and Turkey have struck an historic deal to start talks next year on admitting the vast Muslim nation to the bloc after last-minute haggling over Ankara's relationship with Cyprus.

The 25 EU leaders agreed to open membership negotiations with Turkey on October 3, 2005, but in a nod to deeply sceptical public opinion in much of Western Europe they said talks would be open-ended with no guaranteed outcome.

The landmark deal, which could change the face of Europe and Turkey in coming decades, followed hours of wrangling between Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, the summit chairman, mainly over Cyprus.

"We have been writing history today," Balkenende told a news conference.

"We believe that the EU should become a power which would really contribute to world peace," said Erdogan, who at one stage threatened to walk out over the bloc's demands that he recognise the Greek Cypriot government. "Democracy and human rights are the common desire of all humanity."

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, one of Turkey's strongest allies, said offering the large Muslim democracy the prospect of EU membership was a signal to the Islamic world:

"It shows that those who believe there is some fundamental clash in civilisations between Christian and Muslim are actually wrong, that we can work together and we can co-operate together."

Turkish shares hit a record high on news of the deal, underlining Ankara's hopes that the entry talks will encourage foreign investment in the vast, mainly agrarian country on the cusp of Europe and the Middle East.

The summit ran into overtime over the EU's insistence that Turkey act towards recognising the Greek Cypriot government, which Ankara has rejected until there is a settlement for the divided island.

The EU dropped a humiliating demand that Turkey initial the pact immediately on Friday. Erdogan had threatened to walk out after Cyprus demanded a written commitment.

A Turkish official quoted him as telling Balkenende: "You are choosing 600,000 Greeks (Cypriots) over 70 million Turks, and I cannot explain this to my people."

Eventually Turkey pledged unilaterally to sign a protocol extending its EU association agreement to 10 states which joined the bloc in May, including Cyprus, before it starts entry talks, while insisting that did not mean recognition.

The east Mediterranean island divided into Greek and Turkish sectors has eluded 30 years of diplomatic efforts at a solution. In April, Greek Cypriots rejected a UN peace plan to reunite the island which Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots had accepted.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said Erdogan gave the celebratory toast a bitter taste by stressing pointedly that Turkey was not recognising Greek Cyprus, drawing an equally tart reaction from Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos.

Balkenende said Turkey was not granting full recognition to Cyprus but hoped the EU deal would help solve the issue.

"It is not what you can call a formal legal recognition but it is a step that can lead to progress in this field," he said.

Erdogan said Turkey had undergone a "silent revolution" in meeting EU demands for political and economic reform and its membership, after at least a further decade of negotiations and transformation, could only strengthen the bloc.

The EU also agreed to invite Bulgaria and Romania to join in 2007, taking its membership to 27 nations, and to open entry talks with Croatia next March.

But EU leaders, who toasted the deal with champagne and an orange juice for Erdogan, still have to overcome hostile public opinion towards the Turkey deal, sealed more than 40 years after Ankara signed an association deal with the bloc.

Opponents say Turkey is too big, too populous, too poor and too culturally different to integrate into the EU, and that the bloc risks a mass influx of cheap workers and "enlarging itself to death" by extending its borders to Iran, Iraq and Syria.

Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel pledged Austria would hold a referendum on Turkey's entry to the EU, following France's lead. Public opinion in Austria, France and several other member states, is overwhelmingly opposed to Ankara's bid.

French President Jacques Chirac said Ankara had made a "marvellous" effort for the EU but much remained to be done. He noted EU leaders had left open the possibility of failure.

"The opening of negotiations does not, naturally, mean accession. The road will be long, and difficult, if Turkey is to be able to meet all the conditions necessary to join Europe," Chirac told a news conference.

The EU decision made clear Turkey could not join before 2015, by which time it is projected to have the bloc's largest population with more than 80 million, giving it the most voting power in decision-making and the most European Parliament seats.

Before Turkey joins, it will have to transform its economy, society and long authoritarian politics, and the EU must revise fundamentally its two main spending policies - farm subsidies and regional aid, which the poor nation would expect to draw on.

Turkey is also likely to have to accept possible permanent emergency limits on labour migration, conditions not applied to past candidates and called discriminatory by Turkey.

- REUTERS