Turkey’s Accession to EU.. A Long Dream?

The European Union must liberalize its visa regime with Turkey before the country’s accession to the bloc, because Turkey’s membership will take a long time to achieve, a former top EU diplomat has said.

“I don’t know [whether visa liberalization will occur before or after membership], but since the accession process will be long, I hope that it will happen before,” prominent European diplomat Javier Solana told the Hürriyet Daily News on Tuesday.

Solana, a former EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, spoke to the paper after a press meeting where a Council of Europe report on diversity was launched.

Provisions of an additional protocol to the Ankara Agreement signed between Turkey and the EU in 1971 imply no tougher requirements than the existing ones at the time of the signature can be imposed on people’s freedom of movement by either party.

“That is true,” Solana said, referring to the protocol’s provisions on no tougher measurements, but he refused to comment further as he said he was not qualified to discuss the related legal aspects.

Turkey’s accession to the European Union is a very long process and the negotiations will take time, according to Solana.

“It is not going to be done in 24 hours. This is a long, long process. Turkey is a very important country, it is a very big country that has a very fast-growing economy,” he said. “[The EU] is not bringing in a small country. It is an important country with a foreign policy, with 70 million people, with an economy that is growing faster than the European average.”

Solana also said Turkey’s EU membership would benefit all parties.

“I think that we need each other. [Turkey] need Europe, and Europe needs [Turkey],” he said.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently claimed that Turkey-EU negotiations will be sped up after the June 12 general elections in Turkey. Asked about this statement, Solana said: “I hope so too, although I do not relate elections to [the negotiations process] unless the results of the election create a government that goes against what has been in the acquis already in the negotiations, which is not going to happen.”

He said the fact that Turkey and the EU were negotiating was good for the democratic processes that have taken place in Turkey.

“I would like very much [for negotiations] to go faster. We lost the second part of 2010. I hope that in 2011 there will be [new] chapters open. I hope that the chapter on competition, which is an important one, will move faster in 2011,” Solana said.

Turkey has only been able to open 13 chapters out of 35 in its negotiations with the European Union since 2005, with only three chapters left able to be opened in the coming years due to EU countries’ blockades on the rest of chapters.

Asked whether the negotiations could reach a bottleneck in the near future, Solana said: “I hope not. This is my wish…. We have to do what we have to do rapidly. What we have to do and what you are obliged to do … [is] to comply with what is the spirit [of the negotiations] and then [both parties] will share the details and move on. That is what I would like to see.”

The Turkish government has accused EU countries of slowing the talks while the European Union continues to press Turkey to keep its promises to open its ports and airports to Greek Cypriot vessels. Talks on eight chapters are suspended since Turkey is seen as not fulfilling its obligation toward Greek Cyprus.

Solana said, however, that both parties shared responsibility for the slow pace of negotiations. “Everybody has part of the responsibility,” he said.

Action, not simply letters, needed in Iran talks

The European diplomat also commented on statements made Monday by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who said his country would resume nuclear talks with Western powers based on an exchange of letters between Tehran and European officials. “I don’t think it is a question of writing letters, it is a question of solving problems,” Solana said. “[This should] not to go to another ledger or another document.

Solana said Iran had to clearly show political will and the objectives of its nuclear program. Regarding Ahmadinejad’s claims that the previous talks had not been held on just grounds, he said: “I heard that so long ago. If we are still saying these things, we are not going to move [forward].”

May 11, 2011
SOURCE: Hürriyet Daily News