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Obama urges EU to welcome Turkey

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  • Obama urges EU to welcome Turkey

    Obama urges EU to welcome Turkey
    By Joshua Chaffin in Prague, Scheherazade Daneshkhu in Paris and Chris
    Bryant in Berlin

    FT
    Published: April 5 2009 18:31 | Last updated: April 5 2009 18:31

    On the eve of his first visit to Turkey, US President Barack Obama on
    Sunday urged European leaders to overcome their reservations and grant
    the country full admission to the European Union as a way to build
    stronger ties to the Muslim world.

    `Moving towards Turkish membership in the EU would be an important
    signal of your commitment to this agenda and ensure that we continue
    to anchor Turkey firmly in Europe,' Mr Obama told fellow heads of
    state at an EU-US summit in Prague.

    Mr Obama's plea restated a well-known US position but had special
    resonance since it came just hours before he was due to leave for
    Ankara as part of his first visit to a mostly Muslim country. It was
    swiftly rejected by two of the EU's biggest member states ` France and
    Germany ` however.

    `I have always been opposed to this entry and I still am,' French
    president Nicolas Sarkozy said in a television interview. `When it
    comes to EU matters, it's for member-states of the European Union to
    decide,' Mr Sarkozy added.

    Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said she believed it was `in all
    our interests' that Turkey develop close ties to the EU, but
    suggesting that this could take the form of a `privileged partnership'
    rather than full membership.

    The exchanges over Turkey stood out at a summit meeting that was
    largely dedicated to emphasising the renewed health of a transatlantic
    relationship frayed by the Iraq war.

    Appearing beside José Manuel Barroso, the president of the
    European Commission, Mr Obama called the EU-US relationship `one of
    the key foundations for progress in the world' and vowed to `pursue it
    and strengthen it' in the future.

    That sentiment, endorsed by a beaming Mr Barroso, appeared to trump
    lingering differences between the two parties on fundamental issues `
    such as how to tackle the economic crisis effort in Afghanistan.

    Mr Obama also called on EU members to accept some detainees from the
    US prison in Guantánamo Bay to help him meet his pledge to
    close the centre by January next year. The US President said it was
    `urgent that the European Council issue a common position supporting
    the right of your member states to accept detainees if they so
    choose'.

    EU members have been split on how far they are prepared to go and
    whether they would accept Guantánamo inmates ` particularly
    those with no link to their own countries.

    Mr Barroso offered special praise for the Obama administration's
    commitment to fight global warming, saying that the `EU was now much
    more on a convergence path with our American friends' heading into a
    December meeting in Copenhagen aimed at achieving a global pact on
    climate change.
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