EU seek guarantees from Turkey
The conservative group in the European Parliament will today ask the assembly to postpone the planned ratification of Turkey’s customs union with the European Union if it doesn’t get immediate guarantees the Turkish parliament will not link its own ratification of the pact to non-recognition of Cyprus.
The Turkish government signed the agreement to widen its customs union with the EU to include Cyprus and nine other new EU members in July, but in an accompanying declaration it said that action did not amount to recognition of the Greek-Cypriot government, which controls only the south of the divided island.
“We want to get a statement from Turkey saying non-recognition of Cyprus will not be part of the ratification process (in the Turkish parliament).
“We haven’t received such a statement,” said Hans Poettering, chairman of the European People’s Party. “If we don’t get guarantees, our group will request the vote on the agreement be suspended.”
