Athens challenges EU aid for Turkey

Date: 22/10/1998

By Simon Taylor

GREECE has raised the political stakes over EU relations with Turkey by threatening to take a dispute over fresh funding for Union-Turkish projects to the Vienna summit in December.

Athens officials have confirmed that they will challenge new plans agreed by the European Commission yesterday (21 October) in the European Court of Justice.

Greek Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos is planning to write to his Austrian counterpart Wolfgang Schüssel stating his intention to take the issue to the ECJ, and officials have confirmed that the matter is likely to be raised in Vienna.

At this week's Commission meeting, Greek Commissioner Christos Papoutsis voted against funding proposals worth 150 million ecu. He argued that the plan went "far beyond the mandate given by the Cardiff summit", where EU leaders agreed to set up a programme designed to prepare Turkey for Union membership and asked the European Commission to come forward with proposals for financial support.

Greece's anger has been fuelled by the fact that the Commission is trying to get 135 million ecu of the money agreed as spending on social and economic development. This means that it can be approved by weighted majority vote instead of unanimity, denying Athens the right to block it.

In its complaint to the ECJ, Greece will challenge the Commission's decision to treat Turkey as a developing country, arguing that a state cannot be considered both as a candidate for EU membership and as an underdeveloped nation.

The Commission maintains that Greece is going back on its commitment to the European Strategy agreed at the Cardiff summit and argues that many of the spending programmes are necessary to prepare Turkey for EU membership and should be uncontentious. Examples include sending veterinary officials to Ankara to explain Union animal health rules and providing drinking water for deprived areas.