Quote:

"We have to focus on Cyprus issue"


EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said the EU leaders and parties should concentrate their energy more in order to prevent a possible train accident which may be caused by Cyprus.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has made a press conference after the announcement of the progress report and said EU Commission has decided to determine whether to suspend the negotiations or not during the leaders' summit on December and added: "Since Turkey did not apply the additional protocol, this may effect the normal progress of negotiations."
Rehn said EU expansion was not an express but "a slow, slow train coming and not precisely up around the bend". Yet it was essential to keep that train on track so the EU could use its "soft power" to transform its neighborhood democratically. EU leaders must now concentrate their energies in order to prevent that train being in an accident. Brussels wants Turkey to open its ports and airports to Greek Cypriots. However, Ankara refused to open them, saying that the EU have to remove the isolations on the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus first. We believe there had been problems occurred during the reform process. These reforms continued but slower than we expected."

Quote:

EU Foreign Ministers Discuss Cyprus Issue in Brussels

By Cihan News Agency
Monday, November 13, 2006
zaman.com

European Union foreign ministers are convening on Monday to discuss enlargement and the Cyprus problem in particular, which is seen as an obstacle before Turkey's accession to the 25-member-bloc.

Turkey and Cyprus issue are the main points in today's biannual meeting in Brussels. Next month's EU summit agenda will also be established at the meeting.

In its Progress Report unveiled last Wednesday, the European Commission gave Turkey until the December EU summit to open its air and sea ports to traffic from EU member Greek Cyprus.

The commission's deadline has caused some rifts among EU member countries. Some countries, namely, France, Austria, Greece and Greek Cyprus favor the suspension of negotiation talks with Turkey. These countries are expected to express their opinions in today's meeting.