Babacan: Turkey ready for EU talks

TURKEY IS ready for European Union accession talks next month and is determined to make them a success, a key minister said yesterday, shrugging off last-minute wrangling inside the bloc over Ankara’s bid.

Turkey is scheduled to start its talks on October 3, but the EU has yet to agree a negotiating mandate and Cyprus, backed by France and Austria, is pressing Ankara for more concessions. Ankara refuses to accept the Cypriot government.

“Turkey is completely ready and prepared to start the ‘screening’ process’,” Economy Minister Ali Babacan said in televised remarks.

“The negotiation process will be a long one and we are completely resolved to continue this process,” said Babacan, who will lead Turkey’s EU negotiating team.

After October 3, the European Commission will carefully scrutinise Turkish legislation across a wide range of policy areas in a process known as ‘screening’. This process precedes the opening of detailed negotiations on given policy areas.

Turkey is not expected to join the EU before 2015 at the earliest, but the prospect of eventual membership for the large, relatively poor, Muslim country worries many European voters.

Babacan, addressing a meeting of non-governmental organisations, stressed the need to explain to both Turkish and European public opinion the reforms Ankara is undertaking.

“Without the support of public opinion, it is clear it will be more difficult to make certain steps in the EU,” he said.

“Communication is at least as important as the reforms themselves. One of our primary aims is to overcome misunderstandings and prejudices against Turkey in Europe.”

A pan-European opinion survey conducted in June and released this week shows support for Turkish membership of the EU has fallen to 22 per cent since last year, with hostility strongest in EU heavyweights France and Germany.

The study for the Marshall Fund of the USA also showed support among Turks for joining the EU fell to 63 per cent from 73 per cent last year, possibly reflecting the haggling with Brussels over the terms for opening talks.
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The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.