EU to rubber-stamp Turkey agreement on Monday

THE EUROPEAN Union will rubber-stamp an agreement with Turkey on Monday expanding their customs union to the 10 new EU member states in a key step towards opening membership talks with Ankara in October.

An official of the EU’s Luxembourg presidency said foreign ministers would formally approve the protocol to the so-called Ankara agreement without debate at their monthly meeting, clearing the way for Turkey to sign it.

Signing the accord, which involves a move towards de facto recognition of Cyprus as an EU member, was one of the conditions set by EU leaders last December for Turkey to start accession negotiations with the 25-nation bloc on October 3.

Turkey, which maintains 35,000 troops in northern Cyprus, has said it will sign the protocol promptly but insists it does not amount to recognising the Nicosia government in the absence of a political settlement on the island.

Ankara has already met the other conditions by implementing a package of political and legal reforms adopted to comply with EU criteria on democracy, the rule of law, human rights and minority rights.

Despite the referendum defeats for the EU constitution in France and the Netherlands last week, in which hostility to further expansion was seen as one major factor, the Luxembourg official said there was no plan to change any enlargement decisions at next week’s summit of the bloc’s leaders.

“On enlargement, what needs to be said has already been said,” the presidency official told a briefing. “I know there’s a discussion in all member states, but I don’t think we can say more, just confirm the decisions already taken.”