FRENCH SAY AGREEMENT NEAR ON EU DECLARATION ON

C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 006328

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/31/2014
TAGS: PREL FR TU CY EUN
SUBJECT: FRENCH SAY AGREEMENT NEAR ON EU DECLARATION ON
TURKEY


Classified By: Political Minister Counselor Josiah Rosenblatt for reaso
ns 1.4 (B & D).


1. (C) Summary: French MFA DAS-equivalent Ferrari expressed
optimism on September 15 that the EU would soon come to full
agreement on the text of a declaration on Turkish
non-recognition of Cyprus. She downplayed the risks of a
Cypriot veto, while indicating that France would continue to
support references in the draft language to a UN role in a
Cyprus settlement. While France supports a review of Turkish
implementation of the customs protocol in 2006, Ferrari
indicated that France thus far had no specific benchmarks in
mind. She said that an evaluation of insufficient progress
would lead to delays in opening specific chapters of the
accession negotiations, but that this would not interrupt the
negotiations per se. End Summary.


2. (C) Pol Deputy and poloff met September 15 with French
MFA DAS-equivalent Caroline Ferrari to discuss the latest
state of play on EU negotiation of a declaration on Turkish
non-recognition of Cyprus to be issued prior to the beginning
of accession negotiations on October 3.


3. (C) Ferrari professed optimism that the EU would soon
reach agreement on the text of the declaration. She rejected
any characterization of the discussions as "negative,"
contending they were anything but and that France had
received considerable support for its position. She
downplayed the risk of a Cypriot veto if its demands for more
conditionality were not accommodated, reiterating that
agreement on a text was close. She suggested that the
Cypriots would need a little time to back off their demands
in order to take account of domestic political
considerations. Asked whether France was at all concerned
that Turkey might walk away from the accession negotiations
if the text went too far, Ferrari blamed Turkey for its "faux
pas" in issuing its earlier declaration.


4. (C) Pol Deputy asked whether France would allow Cyprus to
remove the language in the current draft that referred to the
UN efforts to facilitate a Cyprus settlement, noting it was
easy to conclude that Turkey was being punished for the
Cypriots' failure to approve the referendum prior to their
own accession to the EU. Ferrari conceded the point, while
adding that the EU had been "weak once" but should not repeat
its mistake. She said France continued to support a UN role
in facilitating a settlement, implying that it would also
continue to support language in the declaration to that
effect.


5. (C) Pol Deputy asked whether France saw a link between
language in the declaration and the negotiation framework.
Ferrari indicated that she did not see a need to transpose
language in one into the other, although she did not rule it
out. Under questioning, she indicated that the French desire
for a review in 2006 would offer the means "to evaluate"
Turkish progress in implementing the customs union protocol,
while conceding that France was not thinking in terms of
specific benchmarks. Similarly, she indicated that, while
France would expect Turkish recognition of Cyprus before
Turkish accession, it was not seeking mention of a specific
date. More likely, she said, would be a decision not to open
negotiations on certain chapters (i.e., transportation) if
there were a lack of progress (for instance, on the opening
of ports and airports) on implementation of the customs
protocol. Pol Deputy asked whether failure to open one
chapter would preclude progress on other chapters; Ferrari
responded that this would not be the case.


6. (C) On next steps, Ferrari said that the UK Presidency
was currently consulting bilaterally with various EU members.
She noted that next week's regularly planned C