LONDON, Sept 10 (AFP) - EU Agriculture Commissioner Franz Fischler has launched a stinging attack against plans to begin EU membership talks with Turkey, the Financial Times in London reported Friday.
"There remain doubts as to Turkey`s long-term secular and democratic credentials," he wrote in a nine-page letter to the 29 other members of the European Commission, the FT said.
"There could ... be a fundamentalist backlash," Fischler wrote, according to the newspaper which said it had seen a copy of the letter.
The commission is due to assess in October Turkey`s progress in pursuing democratic reforms and catching up with European norms.
The report will provide the basis of a decision by EU leaders in December on whether to begin membership talks with Turkey, the only EU candidate country that has failed so far to begin negotiations with the 25-member bloc.
In his letter, Fischler criticised the EU`s approach to possible Turkish membership, the FT said.
He warned that the predominantly Muslim nation`s inclusion could cost 11.3 billion euros (13.8 billion dollars) a year in agricultural subsidies.
This figure has been branded as speculative by other officials, the FT said.
Fischler wrote that the United States and Britain are Turkey`s chief supporters.
"Whether Turkey`s accession weakens the union`s political project is not their primary concern and may even be on their wish list," he wrote, the FT said.
"We cannot continue to ignore public opinion, leaving the European construction to the diplomats," he wrote, according to the same source.
Turkey says it earned the right to get a firm date for the start of the accession talks thanks to the series of reforms it adopted since it was officially recognized as an EU candidate in 1999.