Turkey Gets Encouragement from France, Germany

Turkey’s bid for European Union membership got some encouraging words from two of the union’s most powerful members on Wednesday evening.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and French President Jacques Chirac told reporters after a summit meeting that they wanted to send Turkey a “clear signal” at next week’s EU Summit in Copenhagen. At the two-day summit beginning Dec. 12, Brussels will begin accession negotiations with 10 Mediterranean and Eastern European countries.

The two heads of state said they wanted to present a unified position at a summit expected to see more than its fair share of division on a number of issues that remain hurdles to enlargement. Their position on Turkey is an improvement on their stance in October, when EU leaders said they weren’t planning on giving the country the asked-for negotiation date at the Summit.

Turkey wants a sign

Turkey has passed a number of legislative reforms in the past year aimed at pleasing the European Union. In return, the Mediterranean country is desperate for some sort of a positive sign from Brussels. Last week, Turkish students even sent 1 million postcards to leaders of the EU member states to plead their country’s case.

The reaction continues to be lukewarm. Greece, Italy and Great Britain are among the countries in support of a Turkish membership. Other EU countries, including France and Germany, have been more hesitant to out their sentiments.

That changed slightly, with Wednesday’s meeting. The two heads of state seem intent on going into next week’s summit in agreement on as many issues as possible.

Schröder against sweetened financing deal

On the most recent hurdle to enlargement - the amount of financial aid the new members will receive beginning in 2004 - Chirac and Schröder said they stood by a decision made at a summit in Brussels in October. They rejected a rehauled version of the up to 40 billion euro aid package presented by Denmark in answer to complaints by candidate countries.

Germany and France, who pay the most money into the European Union’s budget, consider the sweetened deal offered by Denmark way too generous.

"This applies not least to agricultural questions where France and Germany made massive strides in the interests of enlargement and of Europe,” said Schröder. “And we expect that our partners in Europe will respect this."

The comments came as a disappointment to Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. His country holds the current presidency of the EU and will guide the enlargement process. Rasmussen has wanted to clear up any divisiveness on enlargement financing before next week’s summit.