Obama urges EU to welcome Turkey

By Joshua Chaffin in Prague, Scheherazade Daneshkhu in Paris and Chris Bryant in Berlin

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 and Europe’s contribution to the war 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.