EU opens new chapter of membership talks with Turkey

(BRUSSELS) - The EU made an encouraging gesture towards Turkey Wednesday, nudging forward Ankara's laborious membership talks, amid fears that Europe's refusal to embrace the country is pushing it "eastwards."

Representatives of the 27 European Union nations agreed to open a new chapter in Turkey's accession talks, a diplomatic source said.

The new policy chapter covers the politically safe issues of food, phytosanitary and veterinary safety, according to the source.

The decision was made ahead of a meeting expected later in the day between Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, and Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu.

With Wednesday's move, Turkey has opened talks on 13 of the 35 policy chapters which all EU candidate nations must successfully negotiate prior to membership.

However so far only one of those chapters has been satisfactorily dealt with and closed.

Formal negotiations on Turkey's EU membership started in 2005, but have moved at glacial pace due to a lack of reform but also to French and German opposition.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy argues that Turkey does not belong to Europe, and, together with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, says the country should be given a special partnership status rather than full membership.

Recently a German official said that "full membership would be too much for the EU to handle, and also no doubt for Turkey too".

Turkey's refusal to deal normally with EU member Cyprus is another major problem.

Its position straddling Europe and Asia, the Christian and Muslim worlds, is displayed by its membership of both NATO and the Organisation of the Islamic Conference.

Spain, which hands over the rotating EU presidency to Belgium on Thursday, had promised to open new chapters before the end of its six-month term at the helm.

The new gesture by the EU comes amid a deepening rift between one-time allies Turkey and Israel and fears that Turkey is turning away to the East.

The two countries had been close allies since a 1996 military cooperation deal before relations nosedived amid sharp Turkish criticism of Israel's devastating war on Gaza begun in December 2008.

The European Union's enlargement chief said earlier this month that Turkey's growing involvement in Middle East affairs does not contradict its bid to join the bloc, in remarks published Monday.

"The country's importance in the region is increasing desire to work with Turkey... I do not believe that Turkey's steps and its attitude towards the EU are contradictory to its membership process," Stefan Fule told a Turkish daily.

His comments came in response to a question on whether Turkey's vote against fresh sanctions against Iran, adopted at the UN Security Council, signalled that Ankara was sliding away from the West.

Turkey defended its "no" vote as a move aimed at keeping the door open for a negotiated settlement on Iran's nuclear programme under a nuclear fuel swap deal it brokered with Tehran on May 17, together with Brazil.

Turkey's "no" came atop a crisis with Israel over the May 31 raid on Gaza-bound aid ships, which claimed the lives of nine Turks and prompted fiery anti-Israeli tirades by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The raid on the flotilla shattered Turkey's already strained ties with the Jewish state, with Ankara recalling its ambassador and cancelling three planned joint military exercises.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has argued that the EU's failure to offer Turkey a swift accession process was one of the factors behind the perceived shift in Ankara's foreign policy.

Erdogan, whose ruling party is the moderate offshoot of a banned Islamist movement, insists that Turkey is committed to its links in both East and West.

Ankara however has often expressed bitterness over the slow pace of its EU membership talks.