Oostenrijk blokkeert start onderhandelingen over toetreding Turkije (en)

EUOBSERVER / LUXEMBOURG - The opening of historic accession talks with Turkey, scheduled for today (3 October) remains uncertain as Austria stuck to its refusal to agree to the negotiating framework late last night.

EU foreign ministers at an emergency meeting in Luxemburg were told to leave for their hotels shortly after midnight, after bilateral meetings between the UK presidency and Austria had yielded no result.

The bilateral talks with Vienna, parallel with constant phone calls to Ankara, were to continue overnight, diplomats said.

Austria had presented a proposal for amending key paragraphs in the negotiating framework which had proved unacceptable to all other member states during the foreign minister's dinner earlier in the evening.

Vienna had insisted on the formulation of "accession" as a "shared objective" of the negotiations to be scrapped in the first paragraph of the negotiating framework.

This reflects Vienna's rejection of full membership for Turkey, instead preferring a loose partnership with Ankara.

The Austrians instead wanted a reference to article 49.2 of the EU Treaty, which states that the "conditions of admission" of a member states are "subject of an agreement between the Member States and the applicant State" - a wording which is more ambiguous and conditional than the clear-cut word "accession".

But diplomats commented that the deleting of the word "accession" is impossible, as this would be in breach of the EU leaders' own conclusions last December - stating that the goal of the talks is accession.

On top if this, Turkey has repeatedly said it will walk away from the talks if it gets offered anything less than full membership.

Vienna also insisted on a paragraph on the EU's own "absorption capacity" to welcome Turkey as a new member state to be further strengthened.

But any changes on the text of the negotiating framework run the risk of stirring fresh Turkish anger.

Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul reiterated over the weekend that he would not fly to Luxemburg on Monday to symbollically attend the foreign minister's dinner, if there was no clear text that Ankara could agree upon.

Dutch foreign minister Bernard Bot told journalists in Luxembourg that the frantic diplomacy in Luxemburg over the negotiating framework was not just about agreement within the EU - but that Ankara also had to agree.

"We need to find a compromise between 25 plus one", he stated.

Protests

In Turkey itself meanwhile, mass protests were staged on Sunday. The Anatolia news agency reported that tens of thousands of Turkish nationalists demonstrated against the country's possible entry into the EU.

The protest was organised by the ultra-right Nationalist Action Party (MHP).

Today talks between all 25 foreign ministers are to resume in an extraordinary session on Turkey, starting at 9.30am (CET).

A meeting of the EU task force on Croatia, originally scheduled for that time, has been postponed by the presidency.