Turkey wants Malta out

For crass ingratitude, the Turks deserve the Nobel Prize. Last year Malta was one among a group of EU member states which signed a joint letter urging the EU Council agree to begin membership negotiations with Turkey.

Since then, the Turks have showered us with ingratitude. Had we known then how Turkey would reward Malta for its support, we would have been one of the first to urge a delay in starting negotiations.

No sooner had the EU Council decided that the negotiations should begin with Turkey that the Turks began to repay Malta for its support with acts of ingratitude. We will show you how.

The EU has a European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP). Some of the operations under the ESDP will require the use of military assets. In 2002, an agreement was reached in NATO to make such assets available to the EU for its operations. This became known as the 'Berlin Plus' arrangement.

At the same time, in Copenhagen, the EU decided that in such EU-NATO operations those EU member states which were not members of NATO or its Partnership for Peace would not be allowed to participate in the Berlin Plus initiatives where NATO assets are involved.

Hence, it was agreed that such military operations would be open to the "23 + 5", i.e. to the EU member states minus Cyprus and Malta, as well as the non-EU states of Turkey, Norway, Iceland, Romania and Bulgaria which are NATO members.

The arrangement was that Cyprus and Malta would still participate fully in the ESDP but would not have the right to receive information, which included NATO classified information.

Hence on the insistence of Turkey, Malta and Cyprus cannot participate fully in ESDP operations. Not being content with this situation, Turkey is pressing for the Berlin Plus arrangement to be expanded to include civilian operations where neither military nor NATO assets are involved.

If Ankara gets its way - and we should take note of those countries that are supporting its policy - Malta will be excluded completely from ESDP.

Following gratuitous remarks by the Speaker of the Turkish Parliament against Malta last year, we believe that Malta has a right to ask Ankara why the Turks are doing this to us.

The Turks seem to think that EU membership is in the bag and that they can dispense with minnows such as Malta. With equal aplomb, Goliath had thought the same of David and was knocked out with a single sling shot.

Patience is wearing thin in Europe. If the Turks want to interrupt their European adventure because they cannot bear the thought of having to become a democratic country, there is no need to turn their supporters in the EU against them by being nasty to them.

All they have to do is to own up and say: "We have changed our mind, we do not want to join the EU after all".