THE EU: Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has said Germany and France would take a joint stance and send a positive signal on Turkey's bid for EU membership at next week's summit in Copenhagen. Derek Scally reports from Berlin.
Mr Schröder, speaking after talks with French President Jacques Chirac, said Germany and France had also agreed to have a common position at the summit on all other issues relating to the EU's enlargement.
"We are sure we will have a common position by Germany and France at Copenhagen," he said.
The statement came following a working dinner between the two leaders near Berlin.
Mr Schröder is anxious that EU leaders agree a date for the start of talks with Ankara before the end of next week's EU summit in Copenhagen. "We must keep the door to Turkey open," said Mr Schröder yesterday, adding that any further indecision among EU leaders "could see Turkey drift off into Muslim fundamentalism".
Mr Schröder and Mr Chirac were joined at the talks yesterday evening by their respective foreign ministers, Mr Dominique de Villepin and Mr Joschka Fischer. Yesterday Mr Fischer defended Germany's determination to throw its weight behind Turkey's EU aspirations.
"It will be decisive, whether an Islamic country can go the way of democracy, social justice and a market economy or not," said Mr Fischer. "It is unclear if this will succeed. Failure will give rise to new potential for terrorist threats. If Turkey succeeds, it will be the biggest success in the fight against international terrorism."
Berlin's determination to bring Turkey into the European fold is at odds with the view of Mr Giscard D'Estaing, the former French president and the current head of the Convention on the Future of Europe. He told Le Monde that Turkey would "be the end of the European Union".
Mr Chirac made clear that he disagreed with the remarks of his predecessor and told Mr Tayyip Erdogan, leader of Turkey's new ruling Justice and Development Party, that he believed Turkey had "a place fully within Europe". But Mr Chirac has been wary of saying anything too concrete before a European consensus emerges.
Meanwhile, EU sources told the Financial Times last week that it is likely that EU leaders in Copenhagen would give Turkey a conditional agreement to begin entry talks in 2004 or 2005, once Brussels was happy that Turkey had met the economic and political standards for membership.
The French and German leaders also discussed a common position on the financial aspects of EU enlargement. Mr Schröder has rejected the package put forward by the Danish Prime Minister, Mr Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
- Mr Giscard yesterday cautioned against the creation of a super-presidency of the EU, an idea mooted by France to woo Germany. Mr Giscard said the key was to strike a balance between the wider European interest and that of member-states. "We are different states with different populations and we need to take account of this diversity," he said. - (Reuters)