Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula PlassnikIt was a great trade in which Croatia fared well. Nothing would have come of this trade had the Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik not held so firmly to her guns in the tough negotiations on the start of membership talks with Croatia. Though it appeared that the entire Council of Foreign Ministers, which began Sunday at noon, was focused exclusively on Turkey, the situation was much more complex and – out of the public eye – Croatia was also at centre stage though of course not to the same extent as Turkey.

The Council of Ministers was prepared by the presiding country Britain, and its objective was to begin that which Britain, together with its ally the US, wholeheartedly has supported – the start of full membership talks with Turkey. The stage was fully set. The decision to start accession talks with Turkey on 3 October was made in December of last year and confirmed this spring, and everything was set for the talks to begin during the British presidency of the European Union, such that the British diplomacy could control the start of talks and avoid any unpleasant surprises. Namely, despite this decision, there was much resistance within the EU against accepting Turkey, less among the politicians and more among the people of the EU.

Great Britain is very interested in Turkey’s entry into the EU for it wished to reward Turkey for its many years as an ally to the US and Britain, primarily during the former confrontation with the Soviet Union, and now in operations in the Near East. The US and Britain strategically view Turkey as a large Muslim nation which is inclined towards the West and with its secular, modern and democratic state, it can be a model and stimulus to other Islam countries to follow the same path. Also, European business circles warn that the population of the Union is aging, that population growth is small and that the labour force will be lacking in certain sectors of the economy, while Turkey has a very young and highly educated population which can fill those gaps. Though it is still far behind the West, it is developing quickly and this opens great perspectives for European investors.

However, there are arguments for those against accepting Turkey into the EU. They claim that the cheaper Turkish labour costs will jeopardize the jobs of citizens of the current EU member states and that the 90 million Turkish Muslims will alter the civilizational, spiritual and cultural nature of the Union. Economists warn that accepting Turkey will be very expensive, for the joint EU funds will have to invest massive amounts of money into Turkey in order to achieve the development necessary to EU membership, and the EU has still not recovered from the costs of the last enlargement.

Though 3 October was set as the start date for Turkish accession talks last December, the debates on whether or not this was a smart move continued, though outside the European institutions, where this appeared to be a done deal. It was discussed in the media, which leading European politicians expressed their doubts, stimulated by the negative stance of the people in the majority of European nations. It appeared that everything was going as planned. However while the doors of the European Union were being opened for Turkey, which was in the interests of Britain and its European allies, in March those same doors were closed to Croatia, which also has its supporters in the EU, due to an alleged lack of cooperation with the Hague Tribunal.

The European media most often interpreted this barrier for Croatia on it’s European path quite simply, as though this blockade was put up due to matters of principle, that Croatia was not cooperating with the Hague Tribunal and not fulfilling its international obligations. Those well acquainted with the situation within the European Union claim that the true reasons are quite different, and that the entry of ten new states in the EU last year created a balance of power of various interest groups in the EU which could prevent Croatia’s entry. The European Union views Croatia as a country close to Germany and Austria and as a conservative right-wing Catholic country. As such, within the EU the greatest opposition came from those countries against German domination and the German-French line, and those are Britain and the Scandinavian countries. In the European Parliament, accepting Croatia was welcomed by the conservative European People’s Party but – as was seen at last week’s session of that parliament – due to the fact that Croatia is viewed as a conservative country, the Socialists and Green parties were against. In this weighing of power, the issue of Croatia’s cooperation with the Hague Tribunal was used as a formal reason for halting Croatia’s EU accession.

Though it appeared that the Turkish and Croatian cases had nothing to do with one another, the cases were in fact related – due to the balance of power in the European Union – for the start of membership talks with Turkey has altered the internal political balance of the Union. Though prior to the start of this Council of Ministers, the media only discussed the problems relating to Turkey’s talks, due to these ties Croatia was also included at the initiative of Austria, and with the support of several other countries which call themselves “friends of Croatia”, among which are Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary and Luxembourg.

At the beginning of the conference on Sunday, Austria surprised everyone present by being the only one against the agreed start of Turkey’s membership talks according to already set terms. Austria requested that the possibility be left to offer Turkey only priviledged partnership and not full membership at the end of talks, and asked that the EU would have to prepare itself for accepting Turkey, which could also block Turkey’s entry. As soon as Austria’s position was made known, British Foreign Minister Jack Straw began to apply pressure to Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik to soften Austria’s position, but she refused to do so. On Sunday, the day a solution was to be found, they met in private three times, for which the plenary Minister sessions were interrupted, but there was no progress and at 11 p.m., a tired Straw was forced to cut the talks short and schedule their continuation for the next day. Then he made another symptomatic decision.

A meeting of the Working Group for Croatia had been scheduled for 9:30, at which ICTY Chief Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte and Premier Ivo Sanader were supposed to give their reports, after which the Ministers would again make their decision to allow Croatia to begin accession talks or, in the event of a negative report by Del Ponte, block the talks again. Straw cancelled that meeting. It was obvious that he did not want Croatia on the table until a decision had been made on Turkey, while – it appeared – that this was exactly what Austria wanted. Diplomatic sources claim that the Croatian case had been opened on Sunday afternoon, independent of Carla Del Ponte’s report, and so certain reporters began receiving indications from diplomatic circles that Austria could give in on the Turkey issue if the Croatian issue was first resolved and the doors opened for the start of accession talks.

Talks on Turkey continued on Monday morning with the same intensity and same uncertainty, for Austria refused to give in despite rising pressures from Britain, including attacks from the British press that the “conservative and Catholic” Austria was preventing Turkey’s entry for racist and religious reasons and because Turkey had invaded Vienna three centuries ago. However Ursula Plassnik was insistent and in the end, Straw had to give in and add certain changed to the document on the framework for Turkey’s talks which softened the EU’s obligation to accept Turkey for membership at the end of the negotiation process, leaving the possibility that the talks could fail. With that, Straw finally called the Working Group for Croatia, even though the talks on Turkey had not been completed. One could conclude what was agreed at the meeting between Straw and Ursula Plassnik and what that Working Group on Croatia would decide.

As is well known, the Working Group to date has always acted in accordance with the report by Chief ICTY Prosecutor, Carla Del Ponte. Her attitude towards Croatia has not changed for months, continually claiming that Croatia’s cooperation with the Hague was insufficient and constantly accusing Croatia for not locating and extraditing Ante Gotovina and casting aside Croatia’s insistence that Gotovina is not in Croatia. Recently she even went as far as to criticize the Catholic Church in Croatia for hiding him in a Franciscan monastery. Last Friday in Zagreb, Carla Del Ponte spoke in the same tone, stating that she was “extremely disappointed that Ante Gotovina is not in the Hague”. She acted so cold in Zagreb that both President Stipe Mesić and Premier Ivo Sanader were quite concerned, which was seen on their sour facial expressions at the joint press conference. She told the press not to ask about the report she would give in Luxembourg as she “still had two days to finalize her decision”.

However, in Luxembourg on Monday she acted completely differently. In those two days, much obviously happened, for it was decided at a different level that the doors of the EU should be opened to Croatia. Her attitude was completely different in Luxembourg, she was very cordial with Premier Sanader both before and after the session of the Working Group, and at the very session of the working group she said what few expected of her, that “in recent weeks, Croatia had shown full cooperation with the Hague Tribunal”. This was a great turnaround for the Hague Prosecutor, which occurred in only two days.

While the session of the Working Group for Croatia unfolded in a positive manner, the situation surrounding Turkey began to change simultaneously, for the persistent Ursula Plassnik began to give in. In the end, she agree to certain slight changes in Turkey’s talks framework, which satisfied the British side because Ursula Plassnik backed away from her demand that at the end of talks Turkey would not be offered full membership but only a privileged partnership. This talks framework was sent to Ankara for review by the Turkish government and, in the event that Turkey accepted the framework, then Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül would immediately fly to Luxembourg to be present at the official opening of talks on Monday evening.

  On Monday evening, news arrived from Turkey that the document was acceptable to the Turkish government and that the entire stormy operation had come to an end for both Turkey and Croatia, whose cases had become intertwined due to diplomatic games. Such that the doors to the EU were again opened after six months of a completely unnecessary blockade in which all parties acted as though they were highly principled, which was now removed thanks to the decisive Austrian approach in the Council of Ministers.