International News
Volume 3, Issue 1
January 2000
Turkey
proposes positive bid to
join the European Community
(Reuters)
European Union leaders began their final summit session of the century set to welcome Turkey as a new candidate for membership, along with 12 other countries vying to join the rich Western trade bloc.
Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said he had accepted an offer of candidacy for Ankara after special EU envoy Javier Solana rushed to Turkey on Friday night to explain the terms. Ecevit was on his way to Helsinki to attend the final lunch with summit leaders.
He will join leaders from Cyprus, Malta and 10 former Communist states in central and eastern Europe at a symbolic meeting of the 28 nations, which may form a European Union of some 500 million citizens early in the 21st century.
EU harmony was tested on Friday by differences over how to respond to Russia's military campaign in Chechnya, the terms of an elusive tax package and Greek and Turkish hesitations over Ankara's candidacy.
EU foreign policy chief Solana and Guenter Verheugen, the European commissioner for enlargement, flew at short notice to Ankara to explain the offer after Turkey expressed reservations. "We have a yes," Solana told reporters in Ankara after a brief meeting with Ecevit.
EU officials acknowledged they had been caught off guard when Turkey expressed doubts about clauses in the invitation dealing with territorial disputes with its rival Greece and the status of the divided island of Cyprus.
The EU leaders had also had to struggle to win the support of Greece, which had long resisted bringing Ankara closer to the Union. Turkey will not be able to start membership negotiations for many years.
It must first meet the standard EU criteria on democracy, human and minority rights, civilian control over the military and economic readiness.
Six other states will be able to start membership talks in February after receiving invitations to do so on Friday. The EU leaders said Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and Malta will be given a chance to catch up with Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Estonia and Cyprus, which began negotiating entry in March 1998. All 12 countries will be represented in Helsinki on Saturday.
