Turkey widens EU talks, expects French fairness

Turkey said yesterday it expected France, long an opponent of Turkish EU membership, to treat its entry negotiations fairly and openly during its six-month presidency beginning next month.

At a Luxembourg accession conference, Turkey and the EU opened two new "chapters", covering company law and intellectual property rights, bringing the total under discussion to eight of 35. Ankara, if successful in the slow-moving negotiations, is not expected to join until 2015 at earliest.

Turkey's progress over the last three years has been hindered by French resistance, disputes with EU member Cyprus, EU concerns over human rights in Turkey and the perception in Europe that Turkey is slow to put reforms into practice.

Turkey's chief EU negotiator, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, told a news conference after the talks in Luxembourg that Turkey expected the EU to honour its commitments and open chapters with Turkey once it met technical requirements. "We expect that the French Presidency will be a fair, impartial and transparent Presidency as we have been told on various occasions. We believe our EU accession process will be further advanced during the French presidency."

Mr Babacan reiterated complaints that Turkey's progress was being held up by "political" considerations of some EU states.

"We would like to think that negotiations can advance in line with the technical readiness of Turkey," he said.

European Commission Director-General Michael Leigh said the EU executive was ready to open seven more chapters with Turkey - in areas ranging from food safety to social policy - as soon as the country met the benchmarks required.

"I expect that during coming months, further progress can be made," he told the news conference.

To the annoyance of Ankara and many EU capitals, France wants to restrict talks to those chapters which could be used as the basis of a future "privileged partnership", short of membership. Turkey rejects any notion of such a 'partnership'.

The European Commission has called on Turkey to implement stalled reforms on state aid, decentralisation, ombudsman law and upgrading the powers of the Court of Auditors.

A bid by prosecutors to shut down the ruling AK Party for alleged Islamist activities is seen casting further political uncertainty over the accession process.

Opponents to Turkish membership argue that the vast country would be a drain on EU finances, that as a Muslim nation it could not integrate well with mainstream European culture, or that its human rights policies are far short of requirements.

Ankara argues it has a fast growing economy with a young population and that its cultural and religious roots, tempered by a strong Western orientation, would allow it to act as a bridge to the Muslim world.