Turkey ups stakes in EU drive

Turkey raised the stakes yesterday in its fight for a date for European Union entry talks, accusing the EU of double standards as east European candidates made a final pitch for more cash to clinch accession deals.

Lambasting EU caution over his country's membership bid, Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan said the wealthy 15-nation bloc was being hypocritical in insisting Ankara improve human rights and democracy before it can open negotiations.

"We see six countries that have not met all of the political criteria but which have negotiation dates," Erdogan said after talks with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who will chair a crucial EU summit in Copenhagen from Thursday.

"The EU must abandon this double standard that is poisoning it," the leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party said on a stopover in Copenhagen on his way to Washington.

Erdogan branded unacceptable a Franco-German proposal for the EU to open talks in July 2005 if Turkey meets the criteria by a review in December 2004, and is counting on US President George W. Bush to back his demand for an earlier, firmer date.

Washington is eager at this sensitive moment for its European partners to embrace a strategic Muslim Nato ally, crucial to US military operations in Iraq and the wider Middle East, but too much public pressure could be counter-productive.

The EU expects Turkey to endorse an outline deal to reunite Cyprus this week and lift its obstruction of an agreement to give Europe assured access to Nato planning and assets for its military operations, in return for a conditional date for talks.

A senior EU diplomat said there was "a sporting chance" of clinching a Cyprus accord and a way forward for Turkey's candidacy, in addition to Copenhagen's historic mission to unite post-Cold War Europe, but it was by no means a done deal.

"Erdogan has raised very high expectations of what kind of date he can get. I hope he doesn't raise the stakes too high. It will have to be a conditional date," the envoy said.

The EU is set to conclude negotiations with Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Cyprus and Malta.

Erdogan said the EU had opened talks with Latvia at a time when the status of its Russian minority was unclear, and he cited the plight of the Roma, or gypsies, in several Central and Eastern European states as violations of the EU criteria.

Brussels says Turkey must end torture, bring torturers to justice, free political prisoners, implement more rights for Kurds and non-Muslims, improve freedom of speech and reduce the military's dominant influence to meet European standards.

East European applicants meanwhile pressed for final concessions on farm aid and budget rebates yesterday in the endgame of accession talks due to be concluded in Copenhagen.

Cyprus officially became the first of the 10 candidates to wind up negotiations, but the biggest applicant Poland said it remained at odds with the EU over the scale of future EU aid.

Slovakia, a small central European country of five million, became the second candidate country yesterday to provisionally close accession negotiations, diplomatic sources said.

Cyprus officially closed its accession negotiations earlier yesterday, just days before a December 12-13 summit in Copenhagen where the 10 mostly ex-communist candidates expect to receive a formal invitation to join the EU on May 1, 2004.

Several other candidates, notably the biggest applicant Poland, are still holding out for more farm aid and additional money to smooth the first year of their accession in 2004.

Denmark, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, has urged the applicants to accept what it calls the bloc's final financial offer, saying there is no more money available.

Poland hopes to squeeze a further billion euros out of the EU before, or more probably at, the summit on December 12-13.

"The list where our positions differ is still relatively long," Polish Foreign Minister Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz told reporters in Brussels.

The main suspense now rests on whether Germany, Europe's main paymaster, which has already grumbled that the Danish final offer to the candidates was too generous, will dig deeper into its strained coffers to ensure a happy end in Copenhagen.

"I don't suppose it will fail for want of a bit of German money at the end," the senior diplomat said.