TURKEY’S PRIME minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Brussels last night for the first time in four years, with the aim of resuscitating his country’s flagging efforts to join the EU. Officials in Brussels believe that this year is likely to be decisive for Ankara’s EU ambitions.
Mr Erdogan’s first visit to the EU headquarters since membership negotiations began in 2005 could signal a shift in his government’s European policies, following two years of power struggles at home and a souring of relations with the EU.
The EU is split over the merits of admitting Turkey, with France and Germany among those hostile, and Mr Erdogan needs to demonstrate his credentials with decisive reforms at home.
After radical reforms at the start of the decade he is seen to have halted or reversed course, and stability has been rocked by threats of a military coup, assassinations, prosecutions of liberals, writers and journalists, and persecution of the Kurdish minority.
Mr Erdogan is also thought to have been stonewalling on pledges aimed at ending the division of Cyprus, an EU member.
The energy crisis triggered by the collapse in Russian gas supplies will also feature in talks. Turkey is key to the transit of oil and gas, as Europe’s proposed pipeline to take Caspian gas to Austria runs through Turkey. – (Guardian service)