Van Rompuy steunt heropening toetredingsonderhandelingen EU-Turkije (en)

BRUSSELS - European council chief Herman Van Rompuy i has repeated his invitation for Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan i to come to Brussels to mark the restart of EU entry talks.

Speaking in Ankara on Thursday (23 May) almost 50 years after the EU and Turkey signed a pre-accession pact in 1963 and more than two years after accession talks stopped in 2010, he said: "We should shortly see the opening of a new chapter in the negotiations."

He added: "I am honoured that the Prime Minister [Erdogan] has accepted my invitation to come to Brussels in the coming months in order to follow up on today's fruitful discussions."

Speaking earlier the same day at a business seminar in the Turkish capital, he noted: "After a moment of standstill … [there is] a new impetus that will soon be translated into a concrete step forward."

Despite growing anti-immigration sentiment in several EU countries, Van Rompuy also endorsed visa free travel.

He told the business event: "I trust that an early signature by Turkey of a so-called 'readmission agreement' with the European Union would allow us to advance quickly through the roadmap leading to visa free travel for Turkish citizens."

He added: "Progress can be swift. Visa free travel would give our relationship a new impetus."

The EU accession talks fizzled out in 2010 partly due to a veto by Cyprus and partly due to French and German hostility to Turkey's bid.

The stalemate has seen Erdogan shun visits to the EU capital since 2009.

But France and Germany in recent months said they want to restart the process.

Van Rompuy also noted that the discovery of natural gas in Cypriot maritime zones "could be an incentive" for Cyprus and Turkey to end the frozen conflict over Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus.

"A settlement would open up the range of options for the exploitation of hydrocarbon resources in the economically most advantageous way for the benefit of all Cypriots," he told the Turkish business leaders.

Supporters of Turkey's EU entry have long said it would increase the Union's influence in Middle East politics and improve energy security by connecting Europe to the gas-rich Caspian Sea region.

But sceptics say Turkey has a long way to go on human rights, while its poorer regions would suck up billions of EU cohesion money.

Van Rompuy twice urged Erdogan to show greater respect for "freedom of expression."

But he noted the Turkish economy would now be the fifth biggest in the Union in terms of total GDP - on par with the Netherlands, but ahead of Belgium, Poland and Sweden.

On the flip side, he tried to reassure Turkey that the EU is not heading for an economic meltdown.

"Let me underline my strong belief that the current stagnation is but momentary ... We will bounce back," he said.

"The existential threat to the eurozone has been defeated. The euro remains a strong global currency," he added.

His optimism is not shared by all.

Popular support for EU membership in Turkey has fallen from a high of more than 70 percent in 2005, when talks began, to 33 percent.

Meanwhile, in his remarks to news agency Bloomberg, the Nobel prize winning US economist Edmund Phelps earlier this week said Iceland is right to put its EU accession talks on hold.

"We’re still learning about the European experiment and to what extent it’s going to succeed," he said.

"I can't believe that anybody's serious about joining the EU right now … It’s like saying: 'It's a beautiful house - it happens to be on fire at the moment - we should buy it'," he added.