Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn warned again of a “train crash” between Turkey and the EU this Wednesday amid signs that Turkey has no intention of implementing the Ankara Protocol without a deal on Turkish Cypriot trade.
Meanwhile, the Greek Cypriot media are reporting that there are moves afoot by countries such as the UK to postpone Turkey’s assessment by the EU until 2007.
Turkey is obliged to implemented the Ankara Protocol–that would extend the EU-Turkey customs union to all new member states including Cyprus–as part of its EU accession course.
It signed the Ankara Protocol late last September under severe pressure but also immediately issued a statement repeating its stance that it does not recognise the Republic of Cyprus.
So far it has refused to implement the Protocol unless restrictions on Turkish Cypriot trade and air flights are lifted. Trade and tourism to the internationally un-recognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus are underdeveloped because flights and ships have to go via Turkey.
EU plans to remove those restrictions via the direct trade regulation, largely seen as a ‘reward’ for Turkish Cypriot supporting reunification back in 2004, have been blocked by Greek Cypriots.
However, while Greek Cypriots hint they may veto further progress in Turkey’s accession negotiations, pressure is growing on Turkey from elsehwhere.
Finland’s Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, who will take over the EU’s rotating presidency in July, said this week that Turkey must implement an Ankara protocol, while adding that the EU should also keep to its commitments (meaning allow Turkey into the EU).
“We are waiting for approval of the protocol by the Turkish Parliament,” Vanhanen is reported to have said while in Ankara.
Also this week, on Wednesday, Rehn said that Turkey had to take “immediate action to restart the momentum of the reforms”.
“That is the best and only way to avoid a train crash later this year in the negotiations between the European Union and Turkey,” he added.
Greece’s President Karolos Papapoulias als said to the European Parliament on Wednesday that Turkey had some “very serious problems”.
