EU says Turkey offer not enough

EU President Finland said today a Turkish offer to open one port to Cypriot ships did not go far enough.

EU President Finland said today a Turkish offer to open one port to Cypriot ships did not go far enough.

Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said: "What Turkey has said is not enough . . . to fulfil the Ankara protocol [on completing a customs union with the EU] this year, the basic problem remains unsolved."

Mr Vanhanen said he expected EU member states to agree next Monday to a partial suspension of entry talks, as proposed by the European Commission, for Turkey's refusal to extend a customs union with the EU to Cyprus, which joined the bloc in 2004.

"The commission proposal I believe is quite near the compromise (acceptable to member states)," he said of the EU executive's proposal for slowing Turkish accession talks by suspending eight of 35 negotiation areas, or chapters.

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Cypriot Foreign Minister Georgios Lillikas signalled that Nicosia would block all EU membership talks with Ankara, as it has done since September, if other members of the bloc allowed Turkey's one-port offer to provide a cover for continued accession talks.

"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," Mr Lillikas said.

Uncertainty remains over exact details of the Turkish proposal, which diplomats said had been made only orally by Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul to his Finnish counterpart, Erkki Tuomioja, and still did not exist in writing.

Cyprus has blocked an effort to have foreign ministers call next week for an early resumption of United Nations peace talks on the divided island. Diplomats said Nicosia had successfully argued that the EU did not issue statements about its own member states.