Most E.U. Capitals Favour Talks With Turkey

PARIS, Sept 24 (AFP) - European capitals were guardedly favourable to the opening of talks with Turkey paving the way to European Union membership, though some opposition parties were hostile and public opinion was uncertain.
In Germany, speaking a day after the EU Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said he saw "no more obstacles" to the opening of talks, a government official said Berlin would abide by the Commission's formal decision, to be announced on October 6, on whether the talks should go ahead.
Foreign Minister Joshka Fischer, quoted in New York by Spiegel Online, said he hoped for a positive decision but warned that the talks for eventual Turkish accession would be "a very long process, (lasting) 10 to 15 years."
Germany has one of the largest Turkish populations in Europe, and the opposition Christian Democrats have voiced opposition to Turkish accession, echoed by its allied Christian Social party whose foreign affairs spokesman, Gerd Mueller, dismissed Verheugen as an "unelected European bureaucrat."
French President Jacques Chirac has voiced support for Turkish membership once it meets "all the necessary conditions."
But his prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, was sceptical in an interview Thursday in the Wall Street Journal, expressing doubt that Ankara could "bring Turkish society to accept European values on human rights."
Britain has been strongly supportive of Ankara's EU aspirations.
Prime Minister Tony Blair said in May that EU membership would be "important for Turkey, important for Europe, and important for Britain too," and last month Foreign Secretary Jack Straw warned that isolating Turkey would be in no one's interests.
Italian Prime Minister Silvion Berlusconi has long expressed support for Turkish EU membership and his foreign minister, Franco Frattini, told the German daily Bild earlier this week that Rome hoped that the EU summit would vote for talks.
However a key member of Italy's ruling coalition, the populist Northern League, is strongly against Turkey joining the EU, expressing the view that "60 percent of Europeans" are also opposed.
The Vatican, insisting on Europe's Christian heritage, has said that allowing Turkey to join would be a "huge mistake."
In Spain, the government's favourable view of talks with Turkey is shared by the opposition Popular Party.
In Greece, Finland and Poland too there is a general view among all parties that the opening of talks with Turkey should be welcomed.
In Denmark however the liberal Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, hosting the European Commission president president-elect Jose Manuel Barroso, urged caution, saying that Copenhagen would base its decision on the Commission's report.
The opposition Social Democrats adopted a similar position, expressing strong reservations, and the far-right opposition Danish Popular Party, said that Turkey "has no place in Europe," saying it would a propose a national referendum on the issue.
As current holder of the rotating EU presidency, the Netherlands has generally held back from adopting a marked stand on the issue, but all the main parties favour the opening of talks with varying degrees of enthusiasm.
In the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, which has been divided into Greek and Turkish sectors for the past 30 years, Greek Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos has said that the issue of Turkey's EU ambitions should be linked to resolving the Cyprus issue.
Though Nicosia has not definitively ruled out the possibility of wielding a veto in December, Papadopoulos said that this was not the government's policy, and the prevailing view is that it would be better to have Turkey in the EU than out of it.
Of all EU members Austria appears the most opposed to Turkish membership, with Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel urging that the EU "digest" the latest wave of members, admitted on May 1 this year, before engaging in a further round of enlargement.
His ruling People's Party (OeVP) is resolutely against Turkish membership both at leadership and grassroots level, as is the opposition Social Democratic SPOe, and a recent opinion poll found 76 percent opposed among the population at large.