Greek Cyprus, France and the Netherlands have opposed the EU term president Finland's proposal to negotiate on remaining chapters with Turkey before the end of 2006.
Finland wanted to initiate the negotiations in new chapters before the coming year to show that the EU-Turkey accession talks are still on the track. European diplomats said that, for this reason, negotiations were not expected to be opened in new chapters by the end of this year.
"Opening a new chapter would be in accordance with the decisions made at the EU leaders summit," Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja said in a press conference. EU Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn had also called for opening the economy and monetary policy chapters. However, France and the Netherlands commented that opening of new chapters in negotiations with Turkey would send a confusing message to the European voters. Comment EU-Digest: the action by these three countries shows the weakness of their governments who are trying to appease their inward looking right-wing and ultra-left voters. In the Netherlands the Geert Wilders right-wing group and the Jan Marijnissen's Marxist turned socialists are probably the most feared by the ruling political parties.
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