EU foreign ministers are meeting in Brussels to decide how to penalise Turkey for barring Cypriot ships and planes from its ports and airports. The European Commission has proposed that parts of Turkey’s EU membership negotiations should be frozen. Some members want a hard line taken on Turkey, which does not recognise the Cypriot government. But others are reluctant to open up a rift over the Cyprus question, which has dogged Turkey’s EU accession talks. Finland, the current holder of the EU’s rotating presidency, has been trying to find ways of persuading Turkey to open its ports to Cypriot traffic in a first step towards recognition. But Turkey has refused to do so without steps to start direct trade between the EU and the Turkish-controlled breakaway republic of northern Cyprus.
“I personally don’t expect that we will reach a conclusion today,” said German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier before Monday’s meeting in Brussels. “The positions of the European member states – some of them at least – are still too far apart for that.”
Britain, Spain and Sweden are believed not to want Turkey penalised too harshly, while Austria, France and Cyprus want to take a hard line. Germany has been pushing the idea of a review clause, that would fix a time for the EU to discuss again whether Turkey has met its obligations. If the foreign ministers fail to reach agreement, it will be up to heads of state to try to resolve the problem at their summit on Thursday and Friday, reports the BBC.
