EU sets October 3 date to start talks with Turkey

BRUSSELS, Dec 16 (AFP) - European Union leaders said they had agreed late Thursday to open accession talks with Turkey on October 3 next year, but that Ankara must recognise Cyprus before then.
"We said that ... we can start negotiations with Turkey on the basis on the analysis of the commission," Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, the EU's current chairman, told a news conference after late-night talks here.
"It will start on the third of October next year," he added.
But Swedish Prime Minister Goeran Persson, hailing a "historical decision," said the leaders agreed also to demand Turkey "ratify the (expanded) Ankara Agreement".
A protocol to the agreement, Turkey's founding association accord with the EU's forerunner signed in 1963, must be updated to encompass the EU's 10 new member states including Cyprus.
Signing the protocol would imply de facto recognition of Cyprus by Turkey.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said they chose October 3 "to give Turkey the time required to recognise Cyprus, something that is necessary because one cannot join a family without recognising one of its members."
"Turkey demanded to have the time to enable its parliament to approve the recognition of Cyprus. We gave it the time," he added.
Czech deputy prime minister Martin Jahn said that "Cyprus agrees with this formulation." He said the date had been proposed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The EU heads of government did not address a raft of tough conditions they are expected to attach to Turkey's eventual accession, Balkenende said.
"We did not talk about the issue of safeguards tonight. Tomorrow we have discussions on that," he said.
But he added there is "no guarantee" that the accession talks would lead to Turkey's automatic entry into the bloc.
"There is not a guarantee for the outcome," he warned. If the talks did not lead to membership, "it must be ensured that the candidate state ... must be anchored in the European structures", Balkenende said.
European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso accentuated the positives in the agreement to launch accession talks with Turkey, fully four decades after the country first came knocking at Europe's door.
"Tonight the EU has opened its door to Turkey," he told the news conference alongside Balkenende.
"In doing so it is making a balanced doffer which takes into consideration the legitimate preoccupations of Turkey and legitimate preoccupations also of EU member states," he said.
"I genuinely believe that this is an offer that Turkey should be glad to accept."

12/16/2004 22:53 GMT - AFP