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Turkey seeks 'new Europe' allies before EU
talks verdict
Euobserver
By Lucia Kubosova
07.12.2006 - 09:28 CET
Turkey's chief negotiator with the EU Ali Babacan is touring the union's new member states, seeking their support before the bloc agrees its position on the future of Ankara's accession talks.
Starting in Slovakia's capital of Bratislava, Ankara's top EU interlocutor and economy minister visited Estonia on Wednesday (6 December) and is heading for Latvia and Lithuania later this week.
 The diplomatic initiative comes days before EU's foreign ministers gather on Monday (11 December) to decide on a recommendation by the European Commission to partially freeze Turkey's membership negotiations.
The commission has proposed putting the talks on hold in eight out of 35 areas covered by European legislation, as a sanction for Ankara's persistent refusal to open up its ports and airspace to Cypriot ships and planes - as required by EU-Turkey customs union rules.
But Mr Babacan argued that such a proposal "is quite unacceptable to us. It's not a fair process," he said in Tallinn on Wednesday, according to AFP news agency.
Estonia's Foreign Minister Urmas Paet announced after their meeting that Tallinn would press for a less radical solution - three instead of eight negotiating chapters to be put on ice - while the talks should continue in other areas.
He stressed that Turkey's EU accession process is "in the interests of the EU," adding "the Turkey of today is very much different from the Turkey of five or six years ago."
The Baltic states as well as central Europe have so far either quietly supported the commission's opinion on Turkey or are in favour of an even softer line as promoted by the UK and Scandinavian countries.
On the other hand, Cyprus - as the only one of the ten 2004 newcomers - is pushing for stronger sanctions, endorsing the stricter stance of Berlin and Paris towards Turkey.
Meanwhile, Polish president Lech Kaczynski voiced his support for Ankara's EU bid following talks with the German and French leaders Angela Merkel and Jacques Chirac on Tuesday, saying "We uphold that Turkey's membership process should continue without any revision."
"Poland asserts that the EU should proceed with Turkey's membership venture in accordance with the criteria it had set up before," he added according to press reports.
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