Turkey (and Croatia) welcomed to the EU

Turkey formally started accession negotiations with the EU last night, after Austria backed down in the afternoon over demands that Turkey be offered something short of full EU membership: in return, it is presumed, for Croatia (Austria’s ally) being allowed to start negotiations on the same day.

After keeping the EU waiting by studying the text for some hours, Turkey’s foreign minister Abdullah Gul flew to Luxembourg for an official signing ceremony late last night.

Jack Straw, the foreign minister of the UK, which holds the EU rotating presidency, said tongue in cheek that the EU had managed to meet its deadline of starting accession negotiations with Turkey on Octoer 3 because he had started to speak before midnight UK time.

“We have just made history,” Straw told reporters.

Gul said that this was “a win win situation and the world will also win.”

During a televised address European Commissioner Jose Manuel Barroso said that Turkey must be treated the same as all candidate countries. The EU has to get to know Turkey and Turkey has to sell herself to EU citizens, he added.

Meanwhile, prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that “despite some ugly moments”, common sense had prevailed, referring also to an “alliance of civilisations”.

Croatia was allowed to start accession negotiations after the Hague War Tribunal Chief Carla del Ponte reported this week that Croatia was making great efforts to track down wanted war crimes suspect Ante Gotovina.

Croatia’s accession negotiations were delayed in March because Croatia was judged not to have co-operated enough over finding the suspect.