Turkish PM criticizes German, French leaders' opposition to EU bid

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

Don't make Turkey EU bid a domestic issue: FM

"When you begin a match and we are playing you can’t change the rules, it's silly. We don’t want to be surprised by changed rules, we’ve spoken to (French) President Sarkozy and (German) Chancellor Merkel, " Erdogan was quoted by AFP as telling a joint news conference with his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk in Warsaw.  

Erdogan’s remarks came after German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy reiterated their opposition to Ankara joining the 27-nation bloc, a move analysts described as an indicator of short-time calculations to achieve political advantage ahead of European Parliament elections set for next month.  

"These are very unfortunate comments from both President Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel," Erdogan told the conference.

He added the criticism of these politicians affects the views of Turkish citizens regarding the European Union.

"What was applied to the 27 (EU) countries that are members should also be applied to Turkey," he added, thanking 2004 EU entrant Poland for sustained support of Turkey’s bid.

Tusk vowed to impress upon EU leaders that the terms agreed for Turkey's EU accession must not be changed.

"In talks I will remind my European partners that previously no one told Turkey that after fulfilling certain obvious criteria, resolving certain problems, some kind of new criteria or barriers will appear," AFP quoted Tusk as saying.

"You can’t treat a partner like this. We have to mutually respect each other. Execute the agreements we made, respect the words we have uttered and when everything will match what we agreed a few years ago, then the decision  about accession should be automatic," Tusk added.

Turkey began EU membership negotiations in 2005, but progress has since largely ground to a halt because of disagreements over the divided island of Cyprus and strong opposition in some member countries like France, Germany and Austria. 

During the conference, Erdogan also reiterated support for the long-planned Nabucco natural gas pipeline project, which is to deliver Caspian Sea gas to the EU while bypassing Russia and Ukraine.

"We are a transit country and we support the construction of the Nabucco project. Diversification of sources is very important," he said.

The 3,300-kilometer (2,050-mile) pipeline between Turkey and Austria, which is supposed to start pumping gas to Europe by 2014, needs an estimated 7.9 billion euros (10.6 billion dollars) in gas supplies from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan to start construction.

Transit nations Turkey and Georgia and gas suppliers Azerbaijan and Egypt have endorsed the Nabucco plan, which has also been long supported by Poland.