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France risks EU row over human rights in Turkey |
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Written by Financial Times
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Wednesday, 22 March 2006 15:12 |
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France is pushing the European Union to take a tougher line on human rights in accession negotiations with Turkey in a move the European Commission fears will damage relations with Ankara. EU leaders are also facing calls from Paris to thrash out a new, more rigorous strategy for enlargement – an issue that foreign ministers will discuss at a summit on Thursday night. Some members of Germany’s ruling Christian Democrats also back the plan, saying the EU would only be able to admit big new member states to the 25-nation bloc after major institutional reform, such as that envisaged in the proposed constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters last year. Angela Merkel, German chancellor, recently downplayed the hopes of western Balkan countries of full EU membership. The French initiatives deepen the Commission’s concerns that Paris and its allies are seeking to frustrate Turkey’s bid for membership a mere six months after the EU agreed to begin the accession process. “Some member states want to introduce new goal posts in a non-transparent manner,” said a senior Commission official. “This may backfire because it is not considered in Turkey that we are playing a fair game.”
Paris insists it is acting in good faith and does not seek to obstruct the negotiations. It adds that worries about enlargement played a large role in the French public’s rejection of the European constitution in a referendum last year and that leaders need to consider seriously the limits of the EU’s capacity to absorb new members.
“This is not a question of stopping enlargement,” said a senior French diplomat. “This is a question of showing that someone is flying the plane.”
The first French push is to link negotiations on education and culture – normally one of the least contentious parts of enlargement talks – to human rights criteria.
Paris says the education and culture “chapter” has to take account of human rights issues, such as Turkish textbooks that treat minorities as untrustworthy.
The Commission and countries such as the UK respond that it is unfair to add new conditions to negotiations that have traditionally focused a state’s record in adopting EU laws.
Although the EU’s 25 member states have agreed to start another chapter – on science and technology – no negotiations have started, because the current Austrian presidency of the EU would like to begin talks on both chapters at the same time.
But the larger issue is whether the question of human rights will overshadow almost all of Turkey’s negotiations with the EU, instead of mainly being dealt with in chapters on fundamental rights and justice and home affairs.
An opinion poll last week showed that support in Turkey for EU membership is slipping. Although some 66 per cent of Turks still support entry, the trend is downwards, as it has been almost since Turkey secured its negotiations last October. |