Turkey/EU: Turkey's attempt to join the European Union is in danger of being derailed after EU leaders reacted strongly to its refusal to open its ports and airports to Cyprus.
The holder of the rotating EU presidency, Austrian prime minister Wolfgang Schüssel, said yesterday that this was a serious problem, while French president Jacques Chirac said Turkey's stance "puts in doubt its capacity to proceed with the enlargement process".
Adding to the obstacles facing Turkey and other applicants, the summit also agreed that the EU Commission should report on the Union's "absorption capacity" in relation to future enlargements of the Union.
Absorption capacity refers to the difficulty of making political decisions and operating efficient institutions in an ever-growing union, in the absence of the reforms proposed in the stalled EU constitution.
There was some consolation for applicant members after Austria's proposal, backed by France, to make absorption capacity a criterion for membership was defeated after several other member states objected. However, the commission's report later this year may reopen the issue.
Mr Schüssel told a press conference yesterday that this was not a new criterion for membership, before adding that it was a "condition". Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said earlier that it was not a condition but was a "concept" that had to be taken into account.
The summit conclusions further said that public perception of enlargement has to be taken into account before new states join. This is a recognition that significant elements of the populations of existing EU states are hostile to the accession of new states, particularly Turkey.
On Thursday, Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would not open its ports and airports to Cyprus even if this led to the suspension of its EU membership talks. While the EU insists it must do this, Mr Erdogan says the EU must first lift trade restrictions against Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus.
"So long as the Turkish Cypriots remain isolated, we will not open our ports and airports. If the negotiations halt, then let them halt," he said. After the failure of a UN-backed plan to reunify Cyprus in 2004 - Greek Cypriot voters rejected it - the EU admitted Cyprus with the Turkish-controlled area remain- ing effectively outside the union. Turkey occupied northern Cyprus in 1974 after a Greek- backed coup, and the dispute over the island is a major barrier to Turkey's quest for EU membership.
In its conclusions yesterday the European Council called on Turkey "to intensify the reform process and to implement it fully and effectively so as to ensure its irreversibility and sustainability".
Turkey must also make progress towards completing the "Copenhagen criteria", the measures used to judge whether applicant states can become members of the EU. These include the need to meet certain democratic, economic and human rights standards.
The usually bland summit conclusions did not refer directly to the dispute over Cypriot access to Turkish ports and airports. However, they noted that the Copenhagen criteria includes a commitment to "good neighbourly relations" and say: "In this context any action which could negatively affect the process of peaceful settlement of disputes should be avoided."
The leaders also discussed immigration, calling for greater co-operation to improve surveillance at sea borders and towards establishing "rapid Border Intervention Teams" to combat illegal immigration.
Mr Schüssel said that those settling in Europe must accept some European values. "It is very important for somebody who is coming to our countries to learn the language and sign up to the values, the human rights, the position of women, the rule of law. There is no compromise on this."