Doubts about Turkey EU date

Doubts have been raised about whether Turkey can start accession negotiations with the European Union as planned on Monday, as Austria, which opposes EU membership for Turkey, refused to endorse the negotiating framework. Without approval of the negotiating framewoek, talks cannot begin.

Britain, which holds the EU rotating presidency, has called for an extraordinary meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Luxembourg Sunday to try to reach a deal and will hold bilateral meetings with Austria in the meantime.

Austria wants an explicit mention in the negotiating framework that an alternative partnership to full membership is possible. It has also tried to bargain over accession negotiations for its neighbour, Croatia.

The beginning of Croatia’s accession talks was postponed in March after the Commission judged that Croatia was not doing enough to help extradite suspected war criminals from conflict of the early 1990s.

However, Turkey is threatening not to bother turning up if it goes that far.