Turkey Update: The Train to Europe Stalls

The European Union (EU) summit of December 14-15 was preceded by months of speculation about the likelihood of what the EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Olli Rehn, repeatedly characterized as a possible “train crash,’ which would result from EU insistence on Turkey’s implementation of the Customs Union provisions it had signed in 2005 by opening its ports and airports to Greek Cypriot ships and aircraft and Turkish unwillingness to comply unless the EU eased the international embargo on the Turkish Cypriots. Consequently, the summit decision to formalize without serious debate the EU Commission recommendation adopted by the EU foreign ministers to suspend negotiations on ‘only’ 8 of the 34 remaining chapters – just one chapter was closed with great difficulty since the opening of negotiations in October 2005 – suggests  that the feared accident has been avoided. Rehn and the British Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, pointedly noted that the Turkish train had ‘stayed on track’ and their interpretation of the EU decision was reinforced by post-summit speculation that the EU might even proceed to negotiations on some of the non-suspended chapters while finally making concrete gestures to the Turkish Cypriots.