Friday, Jul 01, 2005
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Nicholas Watt
BRUSSELS: An attempt to end Turkey's 40-year campaign to join the European Union was defeated on Wednesday during a lengthy and heated row among European Commissioners in Brussels. Jose Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission, saw off a group who argued that Ankara should merely be given ``privileged partnership'' rather than full E.U. membership. While Mr Barroso's intervention paved the way for membership talks to start as planned on October 3, there is growing pessimism in Brussels about Turkey's chances of joining the E.U. The strong no votes in the referendums on the E.U. Constitution in France and the Netherlands were fuelled in part by opposition to Turkish membership. France and Austria are both due to hold referendums on the specific issue.
Doubts expressed
The doubts about Turkey were voiced at Wednesday's weekly Commission meeting, which discussed the framework for Turkey's membership talks. It is understood that Viviane Reding, the Commissioner from Luxembourg — which is holding a referendum on the E.U. Constitution on July 10 — argued against granting Turkey full membership and questioned the need to formalise the talks. Ms Reding received some support from Charlie McCreevy of Ireland, Benita Ferrero-Waldner of Austria and Jan Figel of Slovakia. Mr Barroso led the charge against the sceptics as he called for the Commission to support the E.U.'s 25 Governments, which declared last year that membership talks should open on October 25. He was supported by Gunter Verheugen, the former Enlargement Commissioner, and the Belgian Commissioner, Louis Michel. Their intervention ensured that Olli Rehn, the current Enlargement Commissioner, could proceed with a ``rigorous negotiating framework'' for the membership talks. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
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