European Union enlargement a major challenge for Finnish Presidency

Relations with Turkey could worsen, Balkans situation in Finnish hands

Recep Tayyip

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Finland will have a significant role in the enlargement of the European Union during the country’s turn at the EU Presidency as of the beginning of July.
      Indications of the importance of the coming six months were apparent on Friday when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech that the country would "never" allow ships of the EU member state Cyprus into its harbours, or its planes onto its airports unless the "isolation" of the Turkish-occupied North Cyprus came to an end.
      The leaders of the EU countries, who were holding a summit in Brussels at the same time, would not swallow the threat.
      Wolfgang Schüssel, the Chancellor of Austria, which currently holds the EU Presidency, said that all member states want Turkey to smooth out its relations with Cyprus by the end of the year - that is, during the Finnish EU Presidency.
      "If Turkey is unable, or unwilling to adhere to its obligations, it would have a negative impact on the membership process", said Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, without specifying the expected consequences.
     
The dispute means that the EU will need to consider whether or not Turkey’s EU membership talks should be put on hold if it does not normalise its relations with Cyprus.
      Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja expects that the dispute could come to a head during Finland’s turn at the Presidency.
     
In addition to the Turkish question, Finland will have its hands full with the Balkans situation. The UN special envoy, former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, is scheduled to agree on Kosovo’s status in the autumn, and Serbia needs to be persuaded to cooperate with the war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
      The EU foreign ministers discussed the Serbian situation in Brussels.
      The EU wants to send a message of support to Serbia, but at the same time the membership talks are frozen, because Serb general Ratko Mladic, a suspected war criminal, remains at large.
      "It depends primarily on their own decisions", Foreign Minister Tuomioja said, commenting on the situation in Serbia.
     
Another issue involving the Balkans is the question of the EU membership of Bulgaria and Romania, which are to join no later than January 2008. January 2007 is seen as a more likely date.
      A possible decision on postponing membership will be made in the autumn.
      At the summit, other member states also indicated that they would like Finland to chair discussions in December on the EU’s ability to absorb new countries as members.
      In many member states questions have been raised about the future borders of the EU, and of its ability to operate under the old treaties, if new countries are taken as members.
      The member states are in agreement that the future of the Balkan countries is in the EU. Beyond this point, the differences set in.
      In Austria and France, for instance, many have looked askance at the prospect of Turkey’s membership. Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has previously hinted at a second-class membership of some kind.
      The possibility that Ukraine might become a member of the EU has also come as a shock to many.
     
The ability of the EU to absorb more members was a key theme at the Brussels summit. Austria would have wanted the member states to decide that the EU’s own ability to absorb new countries should be set as one of the official criteria when accepting new members. The proposal was rejected.
      "It was important that this word ‘criteria’ was removed", Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen said.
      He noted that in 1999, when Finland last held the EU Presidency, feelings were generally more optimistic, as the transfer to a common currency, and the extensive enlargement of the EU were still ahead.
      Vanhanen said that the increased number of member states has made decision-making more complicated.
      "Growth in the number of members has certainly changed the internal dynamics of the EU", Vanhanen said. In spite of this he said that he "cannot agree with the idea that the EU would have stagnated".


Previously in HS International Edition:
  More money to be spent on security during EU Presidency (16.5.2006)
  Enlargement Commissioner Rehn: Excuses will no longer help Serbia (2.5.2006)
  Sampo’s Wahlroos wants to take Turkey into euro before EU membership (7.6.2006)

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