France's referendum proposal targets Turkey's EU bid

As part of an institutional reform project to be submitted to a vote in July, the French national assembly voted by 48 to 21 for the referendum measure.

Objections from France, which will take over EU presidency from Slovenia on July 1 for six months, have previously contributed to slowing down the talks for Turkey's entry into the EU.

The EU opened entry talks with Turkey in 2005, but there has been little progress amid disagreements over Cyprus and opposition from France and other EU countries, including Austria and Germany. The bloc also suspended negotiations in eight policy chapters because of Turkey's refusal to open its ports to Greek Cypriot vessels.

Babacan cited on Tuesday, in a joint news conference with top EU officials in Brussels, one unnamed EU state in particular as holding up part of the talks an indirect reference to France and President Nicolas Sarkozy's oft-stated opposition to Turkey's membership aspirations.

President Nicolas Sarkozy is a vocal opponent of Turkey's membership bid, arguing that the mainly Muslim country does not belong to Europe. Instead, he proposes a "privileged partnership," an idea Turkey rejects.

Sarkozy has on numerous occasions committed himself to organizing a referendum on the issue if Turkey's accession were imminent during his presidency. But these promises have not succeeded in calming the 40 or so deputies from Sarkozy's own UMP party who are against Turkey joining the EU and have threatened to vote against the entire institutional reform if a referendum is not entrenched in the constitution.

Currently a parliamentary vote is sufficient to approve the membership of new countries into the EU.

The final adoption of the constitutional reform project, of which this legislation now forms a part, is still very uncertain.

However, France has assured Turkey that it intends to advance Ankara's European Union accession negotiations as normal during its six months in the chair from July, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan told on Wednesday a hearing of the foreign affairs committee of the European Parliament.

Photo: Reuters