EU:Turkey's offer to open one of its ports to Cypriot ships is unlikely to prevent European leaders from ordering the partial suspension of talks on Turkish EU membership next week.
Finland, the holder of the rotating EU presidency and one of Turkey's biggest supporters, indicated yesterday it expected member states to agree to support a recommendation by the European Commission to partially suspend the talks.
"What Turkey has said is not enough . . . Turkey is not to fulfil the Ankara protocol this year, the basic problem remains unsolved," said Finnish prime minister Matti Vanhanen, whose government has spent weeks trying to resolve the issue.
The EU executive has recommended that Turkey's negotiations to join the EU should be partially suspended because it has not implemented the Ankara protocol - a customs union with the EU that obliges Turkey to open its ports and airports to all EU traffic.
Turkey has consistently refused to open its ports to Cypriot vessels until Nicosia agrees to remove its economic blockade of Turkey's protectorate in northern Cyprus.
Ankara appeared to shift its position on Thursday when it offered to provisionally open one of its ports to Cypriot vessels. But details of the verbal offer made by Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul to his Finnish counterpart, Erkki Tuomioja, remain unclear and have not yet been provided in writing to EU ambassadors in Brussels.
This prompted an angry response from Cyprus yesterday. "Nicosia will revert to a harder line if some in the European Union attempt to use this to restrict the sanctions which should be imposed on Turkey for non-compliance," foreign minister Georgios Lillikas said.
EU foreign ministers will meet on Monday to discuss the issue before EU leaders meet at a summit on Thursday.