Turkish daily Sabah (06.12.15) reported that Turkey’s EU Minister Volkan Bozkir in an exclusive interview to daily Sabah in Brussels, spoke about the new era in Turkish-EU relations.
The Minister said that the EU-Turkey summit gives Turkey new responsibilities and underlined that they need to work harder in order to reach expectations. Refuting the allegations about the EU’s refugee action plan, which assert that Turkey will receive the refugees in exchange for 3 billion euro biannually, Bozkir stressed that after this agreement, Turkey will cooperate with the EU to make immigration systematic.
Asked to comment and evaluate the reunification talks in Cyprus, Bozkir stated: “Negotiations are going very well. In case the parties will reach a settlement, a referendum is expected to be held for a permanent solution next March. It seems that, unlike the situation during the Annan Plan in 2004, both sides will vote for the referendum.
We can talk about three basic factors that were effective in the current situation. Firstly, the current situation is very different from the one in 2004. In 2004, there was a leader that opposed the referendum in southern Cyprus. The new administration, on the other hand, seems more willing in regards to a solution. There were Greek Cypriot people who had guaranteed their EU membership in 2004 and, therefore, they kept their distance. Now, southern Cyprus is facing economic hardships, while northern Cyprus has flourished in the past 11 years. In summary, the situation is more suitable for a solution.
Secondly, our clean water pipeline to northern Cyprus is another important factor, which will be open to use for the whole island in the case of unification.
Thirdly, natural gas reserves also play an important role in this process. The feasibility of alternatives for Turkey to transport the gas is almost nonexistent. For example, Crete is about 1,500 kilometers from Cyprus. Israel, on the other hand, is not a secure zone for this reserve and the transportation is challenging. Therefore, these three factors and the good relations between both governments of the island give us hope of unification”, Bozkir said.
Meanwhile, Turkish daily Hurriyet Daily News (07.12.15) reports that the European Union has provided a commitment to Ankara to launch necessary procedures on five accession chapters whose opening is currently under veto by “Greek Cyprus”, as the Republic of Cyprus is called, in a bid to deliver on promises recently given to Turkey, the Hurriyet Daily News has learned.
The statement, signed by EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and handed to Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and considered as an appendix to the joint statement issued on November 29, promises action on five negotiation chapters: Chapter 15: Energy; Chapter 23: Judiciary and fundamental rights; Chapter 24: Justice, freedom and security; Chapter 26: Education and culture; and Chapter 31: Foreign security and defense policy.
A joint statement only mentioned Chapter 17, economic and monetary policy, in an announcement regarding an intergovernmental conference on December 14 but noted the possibility of opening other chapters.
“Furthermore, they noted the European Commission’s commitment to complete, in the first quarter of 2016, the preparatory work for the opening of a number of chapters without prejudice to the position of member states. Preparatory work could subsequently begin also on further chapters.”
These chapters, however, could not be named due to “Greek Cyprus’ veto”.
(…)But as Turkey insisted in naming the chapters, the two parties agreed on the formula of a letter to be signed by Juncker to Davutoglu. “This is a letter of commitment which should be thought together with the joint statement. The letter has therefore placed these chapters on record,” a senior Turkish diplomatic source told the Hurriyet Daily News.
A diplomatic source of an EU country in Ankara told the Daily News that the letter was an important commitment to Turkey to open the aforementioned chapters and to further re-energize accession talks.
“Among these chapters is the one on energy. We could have provided a much better alignment with Turkey on energy policies and on energy security issues if we could have already managed to open this chapter,” the source said.
(…)According to EU rules, there is a need for unanimity for the opening and provisional closing of every negotiation chapter, and even one member’s veto can suspend the process. There has been no progress on these five chapters so far because of the Greek Cypriot vote. However, diplomatic sources have highlighted two processes that could eventually effect the removal of the Greek Cypriot veto for these chapters and others.
The first is the fact that many EU countries, particularly Germany, which have traditionally been cold on Turkey joining the Union, have had to change their posture because of the growing refugee crisis. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s active stance during this period to stop the flow of refugees could reflect itself in the form of more pressure on Greek Cyprus to remove its block on the chapters in question.
Second, there is progress on reunification talks in Cyprus that could result in a referendum before the two nations, probably in the first half of 2016. The fact that two parties are nearing an agreement could have a positive impact on Greek Cyprus for the acceleration of Turkey’s accession talks with the EU.