(AFP Photo)
(AFP) – Turkey’s efforts to join the EU are going nowhere because Ankara has failed to live up to its obligations for change and reform, the EU said Monday.
It is “in the interest of both parties that accession negotiations gain further momentum,” a statement said after a meeting of the EU-Turkey Association Council attended by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
Turkey, on a renewed push to join the 27-member EU, “would be able to accelerate the pace” of the talks by making progress towards the benchmarks set, it said.
However, the “EU noted with deep regret that Turkey, despite repeated calls, continued refusing to fulfil its obligation of full, no-discriminatory implementation” of the terms set for the negotiations.
By the same token, the EU “also noted that Turkey had not made progress towards the necessary normalisation of its relations with … Cyprus.”
Turkey’s efforts to join the EU formally started in 2005 but have stalled in recent years due to several stumbling blocks including its human rights record, commitment to democratic values and Cyprus, divided between its Greek and Turkish communities since Ankara invaded the island in 1974.
On the positive side, the EU recognised that there had been some progress towards opening up Chapter 22, which covers regional policy, as part of the accession process.
“The EU looked forward to progress on other negotiating chapters as well,” the statement said.
Foreign Minister Davutoglu was blunt in reply.
“It takes more than one flower for it to be spring,” Davutoglu told a press conference attended by Irish Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore as co-chair of the meeting, and EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule.
“Seventeen (of the 35 negotiating chapters) are blocked for political reasons. We have to unblock this process because at this rate, it will take 50 years to finish,” he said.
Davutoglu called for talks on the external relations chapter, saying that it was time for a new “strategic perspective in our relations” — an apparent reference to the bloody conflict in neighbouring Syria and the wider Middle East.
“Without Turkey, the EU will not be complete, it will not have stategic or geographic continuity,” he argued.
Davutoglu was to take part in a separate EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels amid sharp divisions over whether to supply arms to rebels fighting to oust Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.
He said arms should be given because the Syrian people had the right to defend themselves.
