CUMHURIYET- Columnist Guray Oz writes on the EU Seville summit. A summary of Oz’s column is as follows:
The issues discussed at the Seville summit and decisions taken were all characterized by the newspapers according to their own affiliations. The news in both Turkish and European newspapers were filled with contradictory stories. The summit was in a way overshadowed by the news coming from the World Cup matches. The Seville summit began in the shade of the election results in France and Holland. Silvio Berlusconi, who met the harshest opposition from the European Union after he was elected, was one of the most important figures of this summit. The host of the summit, Jose Maria Aznar, was relieved to pass over this duty to Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. German Prime Minister Schroeder could not ensure a change in agricultural policies pursued upto today and a lessening of Germany’s burden. No dates were set regarding the EU candidate countries. Strict decisions were wanted so as to defend the borders of Europe, but no consensus emerged to implement harsh sanctions against countries providing transit passage to refugees and illegal immigrants. The decisions against terrorism taken at the previous summit were reiterated, and it was also decided to support countries outside the EU in the fight against terrorism. The bargaining between Turkey and the European Union took place among Foreign Minister Ismail Cem and EU Term President Spain’s Foreign Minister Josep Pique and EU High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana. The formulae prepared taking into consideration the details to counter Turkey’s opposition to the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP) were rejected by Ismail Cem. It was understood that Ankara would not agree to such a plan before a date was set for its EU accession negotiations. British Foreign Minister Jack Straw clearly stated this. The Istanbul Accord prepared with the support of the US and British diplomats foresaw that Turkey’s opinions and approval should be sought in military operations Turkey would participate in. The main line of the document made certain that no military sanctions should be implemented against a NATO country. Greece didn’t like this document and proposed a series of changes. The change it presented in Seville was a different one. Greece, wanted to note down the condition that NATO or a NATO member country would not launch a military operation against any EU country. Here the NATO country meant is Turkey, and the EU country was either Greece or Cyprus. Naturally, a decision was not taken on the issue. However, Greece left the summit pleased, as no certain dates were set for candidate countries’ admittance into the Union and the issue was left to the Copenhagen summit in December. If there are no surprises, full membership status will be granted to the 10 countries in one way or another, and they will be taken into the Union in 2003 or 2004. In 2003 the European Union Term Presidency will pass over to Greece. The country which will conduct talks on ESDP with Turkey would be Greece in the six months to follow. Turkey didn’t get a timetable for its EU full membership from the Seville summit. The issue was left to the Copenhagen summit. As always, it was stated that Turkey had not completed its homework. The announcement that no date could be given for the start of accession negotiations fell upon German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. He voiced the will of the EU by saying, ‘We are not yet ready, and there is no binding timetable for Turkey.’
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION