Turkey's Eu Hopes Suffer Cyprus Setback

Turkey's 40-year campaign to join the EU suffered a grave blow yesterday when a diplomatic initiative to broker a compromise on Cyprus collapsed.

On the eve of the Pope's visit to Turkey, where Europe's fraught relations with its predominantly Muslim neighbour have been highlighted by widespread protests, the EU abandoned any hope of reaching a deal on Cyprus.

"Unfortunately we have come to the conclusion that at this stage circumstances do not permit that an agreement could be reached during the Finnish presidency," said Erkki Tuomioja, Finland's foreign minister, after the failure of talks involving Cyprus and Turkey.

The breakdown sets the scene for three weeks of intense diplomacy as the EU decides how severely Turkey should be punished for refusing to open its ports and airports to Greek Cypriot shipping.

Supporters of Turkey, led by Britain, will call for a light punishment while opponents, such as Cyprus, want a strong signal of disapproval. EU leaders are expected to take the final decision at their summit in Brussels on December 14-15.

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, revived the harsh language she used as opposition leader. "There cannot be a simple 'let's carry on as we are'," said Ms Merkel, who assumes the EU's rotating presidency on January 1. "It is and was right to offer Turkey a privileged partnership with the EU rather than full membership."

Turkey indicated that it would refuse to extend its EU customs union to Cyprus, which was meant to have been done by the end of this year. It rejected an EU compromise which would have handed control of a port in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus to the EU, on the grounds that the EU has failed to end its trade embargo on the northern half of the island.

A government spokesman in Ankara said the Finnish failure must not "torpedo" Turkey's negotiations. Abdullah Gul, the foreign minister, said: "Cyprus hijacked the EU."

Ali Babacan, the Turkish official heading Ankara's negotiating team, accused the Greek Cypriots of troublemaking. "South Cyprus has already become a headache and a serious trouble for the EU," he told an Istanbul newspaper yesterday. "What good did South Cyprus's membership bring for the EU?"

The setback to Turkey's European ambitions is likely to boost nationalism, already on the rise in Turkey, and turn public opinion against the EU.

Public support for the EU project has been plummeting. The next year in Turkey will be dominated by presidential and parliamentary elections, so the government will be reluctant to make any concessions on Cyprus or any other contentious topic for fear of forfeiting votes.

Olli Rehn, the European enlargement commissioner showed he is determined to keep the negotiations alive. "The commission thinks negotiations cannot be completely stopped. The train will slow down but not stop." Mr Rehn is expected to recommend that between three and eight of the 35 "chapters" in Turkey's EU membership negotiations be suspended but revisited in a year's time.