EU MUST COMPLETE ACCESSION TALKS WITH TURKEY, NAPOLITANO
EU MUST COMPLETE ACCESSION TALKS WITH TURKEY, NAPOLITANO
(ANSA) - Ankara, November 18 - The European Union's credibility hinges on it concluding accession talks with Turkey, Italian President Giorgio Napolitano said here on Wednesday.
Speaking at the University of Ankara, the head of state added that "to retreat now on that formal decision in 2005 to open accession talks would undermine the EU's credibility and not only in the eyes of Turkey and its people".
Turkey, the Italian president observed, is important for Europe not only because of its dynamic economy "and its position as a crossroads for current and future energy supplies, but also from a political standpoint for the contribution it can make as a moderate Muslim country to act as a bridge between Europe and Islam".
"Added to this is the country's demographic, geo-political and military weight which could offer major support to making the EU a global power," Napolitano said.
The role of the EU as a global power, he added, has taken on significant importance with the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty, which revises the EU's governing charter by modifying the decision-making process and creating the de facto positions of EU president and foreign minister.
The EU of the future, Napolitano said, "will be evermore integrated with realistically defined objectives".
The Italian president met with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul on Tuesday and said said that obstacles to Turkey's membership had to be overcome because ''in a world as deeply changed as the one we live in today, the EU can play an incisive role only if it becomes more united and more integrated and in this sense Turkey represents an added value,".
President Gul thanked Napolitano for his support and asked ''does the Europe which brought down the Berlin Wall 20 years ago perhaps now want to build a wall to exclude Turkey? If this be the case then it represents a lack of vision in regard to Europe's own interests''.
Turkey has been an association member of the EU since 1963, when it was the European Community, and formally applied for EU membership in April 1987.
The accession negotiations focus on whether Turkish laws are in line with those of the EU in regard to such areas as human rights, press freedom, labor protection and customs.
In Turkey's specific case, the talks also center on the situation on the island of Cyprus, where a separate Turkish state was created in the north after Turkey invaded in 1974 to block Greece's announced intention to annex the island.
Since then Ankara has refused to recognise the Republic of Cyprus, which joined the EU in 2004, as the sole authority on the island.
Although they are historic rivals, Greece has joined Italy and Britain in backing Turkey's EU membership bid, which is opposed by another historic rival, Austria, and France. photo: Napolitano with Gul
