FRANCE says it never intended to block the start of Turkey’s accession talks on October 3, but it would like the EU to rap Ankara’s unilateral declaration not to recognise Cyprus and to make sure the word “recognition” is included in the bloc’s response, French ambassador Hadelin de la Tour-du-Pin has said.
The ambassador said in an interview with Sunday’s Phileleftheros that Turkey had fulfilled the criteria for accession talks until July 29, when it signed the protocol extending the Ankara treaty to the new members of the EU, which was followed by the declaration on Cyprus.
De la Tour-du-Pin said this was what the French Prime Minister had reacted to last month when he said the move by Ankara had created a new political situation.
“If there had been no unilateral declaration from Turkey, things would have gone on smoothly till October 3, because there would have been no particular reason for any country to raise that particular issue,” he said.
“But Turkey has issued this declaration, which is very carefully worded, so we had to study it in depth, which we did with our advisers in Paris but also with the legal service of the Council of Ministers in Brussels. And I guess most countries did that as well. So in our point of view, this declaration creates a new situation.”
The ambassador said this was a French position, but must be decided with all 25 EU partners, including the British presidency, the Republic of Cyprus and the others.
“There are a few red lines for us,” he said. “Of course we don’t want to open a crisis, but we want a few things to be said and we regret and think that the EU should regret Turkey’s unilateral declaration. We think that the word “recognition” should appear somewhere, not as a precondition for October 3, but to be discussed in the coming years. We insist on the fact that the customs union has to be respected and implemented. And we insist on (the prospect of) having what we call in French a clause de rendez-vous in 2006 to review the issue. These are the four points around which the discussions are taking place, under the presidency’s responsibility.”
De la Tour-du-Pin said the prospect of recognition was needed, but not as a precondition or as part of a strict timetable
“We think the Cypriot government understands very well that we cannot demand that Turkey recognise the Republic of Cyprus (say) before the 14th of July (French National Day) 2006. This would be too difficult. But we need to have a prospect of recognition somewhere in the declaration,” he said, adding it was important to have a declaration that confirmed Turkey would fully respect its commitments that stem from the signature of the protocol.
De la Tour-du-Pin said that before such formal recognition, relations between Cyprus and Turkey should be normalised, particularly in relation to the Turkish ban on ships and aircraft. “It’s not only a problem between Cyprus and Turkey, but also between Turkey and the other 24 EU partners,” said the ambassador. “Recognition should be a prospect but normalisation should be implemented in the coming months or maybe in the coming years.”
He also said that “all of Turkey’s friends”, including France, had told Ankara not to issue the unilateral declaration.
“Everybody agreed that the signature of the protocol extending the Ankara treaty is not a formal recognition, all the legal advisers, everybody, Mr Blair, Mr Berlusconi and others have said so publicly. The Turks should have felt comforted by those declarations. So why did Turkey feel compelled to make this declaration in the open? The Turks did not need to do that. This created a new situation,” he said.
Asked to comment on the Cyprus government’s opinion that the British EU presidency appeared to be pushing the Turkish agenda, De la Tour-du-Pin said: “When the presidency is yours, it is very difficult to accommodate everybody. Of course one tries to push one’s own ideas and one’s interests, but that’s fair, everyone does that. But you cannot do it much, because if you want your presidency to succeed, you need the confidence of all the partners. If the partners don’t trust you, you can’t do anything, you can’t move on, your presidency will be a failure.”
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