EU stalls on Cyprus to keep Turkey talks alive

The European Commission is seeking to prevent a complete breakdown in Turkey’s 43-year-quest to join the European Union by deferring one of the most explosive issues until after the country’s parliamentary elections in 2007. Commission officials fear that with the pace of reform slowing in Turkey and worries continuing within the EU about further enlargement, Turkey’s membership talks might never start again if they were to stop now. But a dispute with Cyprus, which is an EU member state but is not recognised by Turkey, threatens to bring the whole process to a halt during the autumn of 2006.