Britain expects Turkey to sign customs protocol soon

British Minister for Europe Douglas Alexander told the British Parliament that he expects Turkey to sign the EU customs protocol–which would extend the customs union to all member states including Cyprus–soon.

“The EU agreed at the European Council in December 2004 to open accession negotiations with Turkey on 3 October 2005 provided that Turkey brought into force six pieces of outstanding legislation and signed the Protocol extending the Ankara Agreement to the 10 new member states”, Alexander said.

“All six pieces of legislation are now in force, and we expect the Protocol to be signed soon. The European Council on Friday unanimously adopted conclusions which referred to its conclusions of December 2004 on enlargement and highlighted the need to implement them fully.”

Turkey had been expected to sign the protocol during the recent EU summit in Brussels but, possibly because EU enlargement was taken off the agenda of the summit, Turkey did not sign as expected.

Alexander made his comments in reply to questions by Parliamentarians Jeremy Wright and Ben Chapman on what assessment he has made of the effect of the Netherlands and France voting against the EU Constitution on the prospect for the accession of Turkey to the EU.

Hannay says no solution without Turkey accession

Meanwhile, Lord Hannay, speaking at a presentation of his book, “Cyprus–The Search for a Solution”, said that if the Turkish EU application is rejected, then there will be no settlement of the Cyprus issue.

“If the Turkish application is rejected then forget about it, there is not going to be a settlement. It is as bad as that. That’s my prediction. But I don’t think that will happen”, he said.

Special Advisor for Cyprus to the European Union Commissioner for Enlargement, Jaako Blomberg, will hold a series of meetings in Cyprus on Monday about the Cyprus problem, as well as the EU and UN roles in efforts to reach a political settlement.