Britain sees start of Turkey's EU talks by mid-2005

LUXEMBOURG, Oct 11 (AFP) - The "vast majority" of EU countries support the launch of membership negotiations with Turkey in the first half of next year, Britain's Europe minister Denis MacShane said Monday.
He added that he was confident this would be agreed at an EU summit in December due to decide whether or not to start talks with Ankara, despite pressure notably from France for the launch to be later.
"Britain wants to see a start date as early as possible. I'm confident it will happen in the Luxembourg (EU) presidency," he said, referring to the six months which Luxembourg will have at the EU helm from January.
"I think that is the view of the vast majority of EU states," he said on the sidelines of a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg, where enlargement commissioner Guenter Verheugen presented a report on Turkey's hopes.
EU leaders are to make their crunch decision on Turkey at a December 17 summit in Brussels, based on a report by the European Commission which last week gave a green light to Ankara although setting a series of conditions.
Most diplomats expect the Brussels summit also to give a conditional thumbs-up -- despite reservations notably from Austria and Cyprus -- although attention is focussing on exactly when the negotiations will start.
France is said to be pushing for the start date to be put back until at least later next year, fearing that it could adversely influence the result of a planned referendum on the EU's first constitution.
The British minister declined to comment specifically on France's stance on the launch date, but pointed out that French President Jacques Chirac had already promised to hold a referendum on Turkey's EU entry at a later stage.
"The people of France have got that guarantee that they will vote at the end of the process ... I'd have thought that was a sufficient guarantee for any French citizen," he said.
In any case he joked: "I suspect there will be a different president of France by the time Turkey's finished its negotiating talks, although I wish Mr. Chirac a long life."