Europe

Home page

Europe

On progress report eve, FÃ¼le says EU shooting itself in foot over Turkey

09 October 2012 20:54 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. The European Union Commission, speaking on the eve of issuing its progress report on Turkey, has implicitly criticized the positions of Greek Cypriots and France on Turkish accession. The two have unilaterally blocked many chapters, APA reports quoting Today’s Zaman.
Stefan FÃ¼le, the enlargement and European neighborhood policy commissioner, said the EU was â€œshooting itself in the leg by not allowing the accession process to go onâ€ with Turkey. While not referring to member states by name, the commissioner made it clear that the countries he was referring to were those which were unilaterally blocking the accession talks. The member states that have publicly declared they would unilaterally block chapters are the Greek Cypriot administration and France. The Greek Cypriots are blocking six chapters and France has unilaterally frozen a further five it says lead to membership.

In a meeting with a group of reporters in Brussels, FÃ¼le underlined that the language used in this year’s report on Turkey has been â€œstrengthened on fundamental freedoms, and in particular on freedom of the press.â€ â€œWe have used strong language concerning Turkey,â€ FÃ¼le said one day before the progress report’s release.

While criticizing Turkey’s shortcomings, the European Commission will for the first time use a stronger language against those member countries that are blocking Turkish accession. Dubbed by FÃ¼le as â€œa clearer language than before,â€ the report will mention â€œthe lack of consensus among member countriesâ€ as the reason for the suspension of accession talks.

FÃ¼le was particularly very upset about the suspension of two chapters -- namely, chapter 23 on the Judiciary and fundamental rights and chapter 15 on Energy. Stressing that he drew attention to this situation on many occasions, FÃ¼le said: â€œBehind closed doors I tell not only the Cypriot representative but other representatives as well that we are shooting ourselves in the foot by not allowing the accession process to go on those two chapters -- namely, on chapter 23 on the Judiciary and fundamental rights and chapter 15 on Energy.â€ On the energy chapter, he said, â€œWhat great interest we have,â€ going into details on how he and Energy Commissioner GÃ¼nther Oettinger had talks with Turkish ministers in Stuttgart in May. â€œWhy do we do this outside these relevant chapters? Why can we not do it within these chapters using all the instruments provided by this chapter?â€ asked FÃ¼le.

Both chapters 23 and 15 have been blocked unilaterally by the Greek Cypriots since 2009.

I’m not blind and I’m not deaf

Asked whether the commission could do more to revitalize the negotiations process, a clearly frustrated FÃ¼le responded that he was not â€œblind and deaf.â€ â€œWhat does it mean that you weren’t able to open any chapters in the last two years? It means you lack one of the most important engines of the accession negotiations and that is the reform process,â€ he said.

We hold politicians responsible for constitution

On the process of drafting a new constitution, FÃ¼le made it clear that the EU would hold Turkish politicians responsible for delivering on their promises to the Turkish people. â€œWe hold them responsible to deliver those commitments and not for the sake of the European Commission but for their citizens,â€ said the commissioner. He also stressed that he would be â€œconcernedâ€ if signs showed that Turkish politicians were backtracking on their promises of a new constitution. Underlining that the principle of â€œinclusivityâ€ should prevail, FÃ¼le said, â€œI am hopeful that the constitutional process will be used to put the Turks and Turkey together and will in no way be interpreted as a source of friction.â€