Italy insists EU 'partnership' not enough for Turkey

Source: Agencies | April 9, 2010, Friday |

Online Edition

ITALY disagrees with France and Germany's view that Turkey should have "privileged partnership" with the European Union rather than membership, Italy's foreign minister said ahead of a French-Italian summit yesterday.

"I believe that after starting to negotiate membership with Turkey, we cannot tell them the next day 'It's all over, it has all changed, we should make it a partnership'," Franco Frattini told France24 TV.

Italy has long been a firm supporter of Turkish membership and Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is close to his Turkish peer Tayyip Erdogan, whose visit to Paris this week ended in a "agreement to disagree" with France over Turkey's EU membership.

Turkey rejects the partnership option proposed by Germany and France. French European Affairs Minister Pierre Lellouche said Paris favours "a big Europe, the 27 (current EU members) in a partnership with Russia and Turkey".

"France and Germany will think about it, Italy for its part will think about it, but I believe that the right path is to keep our promises," Frattini said.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi held talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris yesterday.

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Italy insists EU 'partnership' not enough for Turkey

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