Things are moving for Turkey

Turkey is likely to open four more chapters of its negotiations for EU membership in the first half of this year, according to Ali Babacan, the country’s chief negotiator.

He was speaking during his first visit to Brussels since the EU member states decided in December partially to freeze negotiations with Turkey. That move was prompted by Turkey’s refusal to open its ports to Cyprus, because Ankara refuses to recognise the Greek Cypriot government.

Babacan said that the German presidency of the EU and the European Commission were "very keen" on opening four additional negotiating chapters with Turkey. So far, the two sides have opened negotiations in just one chapter; science and research.

"We did receive invitation letters to open four chapters: enterprise and industry, economic and monetary union, statistics and financial control," said Babacan.

"After the December decision eight chapters are frozen, but technical work will continue on all chapters, including the eight.

"Things are moving," he said, adding that the Turkish government would receive screening reports from the Commission soon.

But Babacan admitted that Turkey had experienced "serious difficulties in its relationship with the EU in the last months of 2006".

"We hoped that Turkey would be assessed on technical progress. But we found out that this was not the case," he said.

"The situation is that the progress of Turkey, chapter by chapter, is a highly political decision. If the political climate allows it and member states agree, we can expect formal progress. But one single member state is sufficient to stop our progress."

He complained about this "different approach" in comparison to previous candidate states, saying that "the change of nature of relations between the EU and Turkey upset us the most". It had, he said, "changed the climate in Turkey", by severely damaging "the credibility of the process".

"Until now the question was when Turkey was ready for the EU. After 2006, the question is when is the EU ready for Turkey, when will it get used to the idea [of Turkish EU membership]."

Despite frustration at the slow progress of negotiation, the Turkish government asked for an association council, which had initially been scheduled by the German presidency for March, to be delayed until June.

Turkish officials blamed rules of procedure for the delay.

"According to the rules, it is necessary to have the committee meeting first, to prepare the association council. So we asked the German presidency to put the committee meeting instead on 22 March and have the association council in June," one Turkish diplomat said.

But EU diplomats suggest that the Turkish government might not have been keen to send politicians to Brussels for the association council, on the eve of Turkey’s presidential elections in April, preferring instead to send civil servants for a lower profile committee meeting.

"Playing hard ball with the EU and being seen as tough still plays a role in the elections," said one EU diplomat.

But a Turkish diplomat denied this. "Nobody should draw any conclusion from this. The German presidency blundered over this. They thought the committee meeting had already taken place," he said.

Babacan said that despite the disappointment caused by the EU’s decision partially to freeze talks, the Turkish government would be speeding up preparations for membership. "We are getting prepared for the next five years. At the end of March/April, we’ll come up with a calendar for all 35 [negotiation] chapters. We won’t wait for negotiations to be opened formally to make progress."

Babacan said that progress was to be expected on the controversial article 301 of the Turkish penal code, under which writers have been prosecuted for insulting ‘Turkishness’. "The government is not happy with it…Nobel prize winners go abroad," he said, referring to the announcement by Orhan Pamuk, the 2006 Nobel laureate, that he was moving to the US because he felt threatened in Turkey. Fellow writer Hrant Dink, who was convicted under article 301, was murdered in Istanbul last month by a teenage nationalist. A prosecution of Pamuk, based on article 301, was dropped last year.

"The parliament will do something soon," said Babacan, hinting that the wording of the article was likely to be changed, but the article would not be scrapped altogether.

"Article 301 is there to stay. The problem is the implementation. Even some member states - like Poland, Italy, Germany - have similar articles. But the same article in another country would have been implemented differently."

The European Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn said article 301 was "against the most fundamental European principles of freedom of expression". "It has been my request to either repeal or amend [it] so that it will be brought into line with the European Convention on Human Rights," he added.

Following last year’s failure to reach agreement on the Cyprus issue on a plan put forward by the Finnish presidency of the EU, Babacan ruled out any more negotiations on Cyprus under the EU’s auspices. "A comprehensive solution at the United Nations is what we should work on. The EU has inevitably lost objectiveness over this," he said, pointing out that one party to the conflict, Cyprus, is a member of the EU.

Babacan said that he hoped the current "difficult" political situation in the EU - caused by enlargement fatigue, failure to get the EU constitution adopted and elections - was temporary.

"I hope that the EU will be more self-confident, more aware of its powers and strengths," he said.

He added that the feeling of being rejected by the EU had caused support for the EU in Turkey to drop. "During electoral campaigns, politicians think that the message just goes to a domestic audience. But Turkey is not a closed country. Whatever is said [in EU member states] makes big headlines in Turkey too and the feeling of not being wanted has risen in the last couple of years."

Babacan pointed out that winning the hearts and minds of European citizens was crucial. "Although only one member state has a referendum [on Turkey’s accession to the EU], there could be more in the future. And if people in a member state are against, it would be difficult for a parliament to vote for Turkey’s accession," he said.

Babacan also admitted that his country’s accession to the EU was not an easy step for the Union. "Turkish membership of the EU is at least as important as the creation of the EU itself. It is a country with a [predominantly] Muslim population, a democracy, secular - it is an important case."

But he insisted that Turkey’s accession "would show that the EU is confident enough to have Turkey as a member". It would send an important signal to the rest of the world, he said, in particular to Muslim countries.

Turkey is likely to open four more chapters of its negotiations for EU membership in the first half of this year, according to Ali Babacan, the country’s chief negotiator.