Rehn: Turkey’s full membership is ‘clear’ target as there is no Plan B

Date: 02/12/04

By David Cronin

No alternatives to Turkey's full membership of the EU can be envisaged at this stage, if it meets the required criteria, the European enlargement commissioner says.

In an interview with European Voice, Olli Rehn rejected calls by members of Jacques Chirac's Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP) for options other than Turkey's accession to the EU to be explored.

“There is no self-evident conclusion once we start negotiations,” he said. “But we have a clear objective of accession of Turkey into the European Union. Therefore there should be no Plan B but a clear target of membership after profound and prudent negotiations.”

Rehn said it is likely that Turkey will have met the criteria for opening accession talks in April, when its revamped penal code and other legal reforms are scheduled to enter into force. Although he described April as a “critical milestone” for Ankara, he said EU leaders would have to decide when to start the negotiations.

According to insiders, the most probable opening date would be towards the end of 2005. A draft of the declaration to be approved by the Union's heads of state and government at the 16-17 December summit says that entry talks could not be concluded until after 2014, given the “substantial financial consequences” of Turkish membership and the need to reform the Union's budget beforehand.

Rehn singled out the situation of non-Muslim religious communities in Turkey as an area requiring particular focus. He took issue with an assertion by Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül last week that Turkey respects the right of all religions to worship.

“We admit that the right to worship exists,” said Rehn. “But non-Muslim communities should have the same legal and economic rights as Muslim religious communities have.”

A report set for approval by the European Parliament at its 13-16 December session denounces the hurdles which religious minorities face in Turkey in obtaining legal status.

Rehn defended the safeguard clause that the Commission proposed under which permanent restrictions could be placed on the migration of Turkish workers to the current EU member states. Ankara opposes this clause fearing that it could lead to Turkey being treated as a second-class member state.

“It is a legitimate right of the European Union to reserve the possibility to take special measures, in cases of serious disturbances to the labour market. But several observers are of the opinion that Europe will benefit from a relatively young and often well-educated labour force of Turks. We also know there has been no huge inflow from the central and eastern European countries [that joined the EU on 1 May last] into [western] Europe. Time will tell which of the scenarios - or something in-between - happens.”

On Croatia, Rehn said that he was disappointed with Zagreb's failure to cooperate with the International Criminal Tribunal on the former Yugoslavia. Chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte recently claimed that Zagreb had slowed down its efforts to find its top war crimes suspect Ante Gotovina since it was accepted as a candidate for EU membership during the summer.

Rehn estimates that helping to bring to justice the general - accused of planning a massacre of Croatian Serbs in the Krajina region during the early 1990s - is the “one really critical issue” relating to Zagreb's bid to join the Union.

European Commissioner for Enlargement, Olli Rehn, said that if Turkey would meet the required criteria for accession to the EU there was no alternative to full membership. In the case of Croatia he identified the lack of cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal on the former Yugoslavia as the one critical issue concerning the countries candidacy for EU Membership.