EU parliament leader insists Turkey must recognise Cyprus

The chairman of the largest party grouping in the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Poettering, has said that Turkey should not start accession negotiations if it does not recognise Cyprus, according to Cyprus News Agency reports.

The centre-right EPP-ED Group in the European Parliament is the largest grouping in parliament. In an earlier interview with the Financial Mirror, Poettering, who hails from Germany’s Christian Democrats, said that he preferred a privileged partnership for Turkey rather than EU membership.

CNA reports that according to an EPP–ED Group press release (which on Friday morning was not on the EPP-ED website), Poettering was reacting to reports that both Turkey and the British EU Council Presidency do not consider the signing of Customs Protocol to mean the recognition of Cyprus by Turkey.

These position reflect earlier statements by the European Council about the matter.

Poettering said “negotiating means accepting each other as negotiating partners. The negotiating partners of Turkey would be all 25 EU-member states. How can Turkey negotiate its accession to the EU without recognising one of its members?”

Apart from the fundamental question – about whether Turkey should be member of the European Union or not – negotiations should not be strained by uncertainties about international law, he added noting that confusion concerning international law and politics were the result, which was not a good basis for the relationship between the EU and Turkey.

Poettering said that if Cyprus refused to agree to a negotiating mandate for the European Commission concerning the start of the negotiations in the Autumn, the Cypriot government would only be acting as a consequence of this situation. As the negotiating mandate required a unanimous decision, the Council Presidency is well advised to coordinate its position with all member states first, he added.