Next six months ‘crucial’ to Turkey’s EU bid

Date: 06/01/2000

By Simon Taylor

EU AND Turkish officials are gearing up for a frenetic six months of activity to draw up a strategy for bringing Ankara closer to membership of the Union.

Turkey's Ambassador to the EU Nihat Akyol says rapid progress on devising a framework is vital to take advantage of the positive atmosphere created by the Union's decision at last month's Helsinki summit to open the door to eventual Turkish entry into the EU.

"The next six months will be crucial. We have to maintain the political momentum following Helsinki," he told European Voice.

Despite the problems which lie ahead, Akyol insists that the political climate is right for Ankara to make substantial progress towards Union membership.

"I see a good atmosphere in Turkey for creating a new path of convergence between the two sides," he said. "I think the momentum of reform will continue. It is like a bicycle. To stay up you have to keep on pedalling."

Work during the Portuguese presidency will focus on agreeing an 'accession partnership' for Turkey, outlining all the major political and economic reforms which Ankara will have to carry out before it can join the EU.

That agreement should be finalised by October, when the Commission will publish its annual assessment of candidates' preparations for Union entry. But officials say most of the work should be wrapped up by the time Portugal's stint in charge of EU business ends on 30 June.

Although they stress that Ankara will not have a veto over the accession strategy, they admit that skilful diplo-macy will be needed to avoid offending Turkey and reversing the gains made in Helsinki.

The next four months will see a series of important meetings between the two sides. Portugal's Foreign Minister Jaime Gama will travel to Ankara later this month for talks and European Commission President Romano Prodi is also considering visiting the country.

The main event during the Portuguese presidency will be the EU-Turkey Association Council, due to be held in April, which will seek to bridge the gap between the two sides on the most difficult topics. Commission officials predict that political issues will be the most difficult to resolve in drawing up a strategy to prepare the country for Union membership, given the need to broach sensitive subjects such as the future status of the divided island of Cyprus and broader democracy and human rights questions.

The EU also faces a tough challenge to find the hundreds of millions of euro that Turkey will need to prepare for eventual membership. One idea being floated is to give Ankara access to the Union's Phare programme, which provides €3 billion a year to help the applicant countries.

EU and Turkish officials are gearing up for a frenetic six months of activity to draw up a strategy for bringing Ankara closer to membership of the Union.