Turks risk ‘red card’, warns minister

Turkey will face further EU sanctions if it refuses to open its ports and airports to Cypriot flag carriers, according to Cyprus’s Foreign Minister Yiorgos Lillikas.

Speaking after foreign ministers suspended Turkey’s EU membership talks in eight of 35 areas on Monday (11 December), Lillikas warned that more measures could come.

"If Turkey continues today’s policy then we should expect, for sure, another message - a stronger message - from the European Union," he said.

"Turkey got a yellow card and I hope that they will take it into account and analyse the situation correctly. We do not hope they get a red card, but it will depend on them."

Lillikas added that Cyprus had a "sovereign right" to decide which negotiating chapters Turkey could open.

After eight hours of acrimonious talks on Monday, foreign ministers agreed to freeze some talks with Turkey, because of the country’s failure to open its ports and airports to Greek Cypriot flag-carriers.

The deal was reached after a Finnish presidency proposal to open Turkish ports at the same time as facilitating direct trade with Northern Cyprus failed. A separate effort by Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos to reach a more limited solution also failed.

There is now hope that the EU’s decision will allow the Turkish government to convince voters and opposition groups that the government must move toward opening its ports.

But in private diplomats from all sides admit there is little hope of progress before a series of Turkish elections at the end of next year, or until after Greek Cypriot elections in February 2008.

"We have to be realistic," said one EU source, "it is clear we are now entering an electoral cycle."

But efforts to start direct trade with Northern Cyprus are likely to continue during the German EU presidency, which begins on 1 January. On Monday German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said that his country would try to reach a deal to start direct trade before the summer.

Lillikas gave no indication that Cyprus was ready to lift its veto over direct trade. He said that any agreement would have to come in the context of a comprehensive solution to the Cyprus problem. "It is important that any measures we take will assist the objective of reunification," he added.

Although EU leaders are unlikely to have a detailed discussion about Turkey when they meet today (Thursday 14 December), member states are coming under pressure to make some progress in the 27 negotiation chapters that are not frozen.

The European Commission is pressing member states to approve, before the end of this year, its assessments on how Turkey needs to change its laws in three areas - economic and monetary policy, enterprise and industrial policy, and financial services.

The Commission’s assessments, or screening reports, have been ready since September, but member states have not yet approved them. They must be approved before negotiations on individual chapters can begin.

Turkey will face further EU sanctions if it refuses to open its ports and airports to Cypriot flag carriers, according to Cyprus’s Foreign Minister Yiorgos Lillikas.