The approval of the financial support regulations on COREPER's agenda yesterday was postponed on the ground that "there is no suitable atmosphere for agreement." The Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn coming together with EU ambassadors at lunch yesterday used a basketball term and said they had to "take a break with the consent of the parts" because the Turkish Cypriot part sharply reacted against the proposals. The Commissioner noted they wrote the declaration in order to overcome the crisis in Cyprus but the Turkish Cypriot part told them the proposals "will have a negative effect rather than a positive one." The term president UK also said this is not the right time for the approval of the financial support regulations. The Greek Cypriot part representative claimed Turkey is responsible for the rejection of the declaration, not the Turkish Cypriots. As COREPER failed to agree on the financial support regulations, the future of the 259 million euros has become more unclear. Unless the financial support regulations pass by the end of 2005, the 120 million euros part of it will become null and void. Authorities point out that after yesterday's meeting, finding an agreement by the end of the year is "hard though not impossible."

Additionally, the Turkey paragraph that will be included Monday in the communiqué of the European Council was agreed upon on Thursday.

Turkey and Croatia will be incorporated in the report of the Council, since the subject of enlargement is not part of the December 15-16 Summit. Given the draft resolution, the EU has welcomed the launch of October 3 negotiations with Turkey and the approval of Accession Partnership Document (APD). The draft at issue has some references to the progress report published on November 9, and calls on Turkey to maintain its political reforms in order to settle the problems reported. The draft, in addition, clarifies that the issues referred to in the September 21 declaration of Cyprus will be revised in 2006. Member country ambassadors to the Union also resolved not to use discriminative language in the drafts for Turkey and Croatia.

Gul supports De Villepin

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul warned the EU once again about the question of Cyprus in Brussels, where a meeting will be held for the Foreign Ministers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), backing up French Prime Minister Dominique De Villepin and his statement that parliaments cannot make history.

"What De Villepin said is correct, parliaments are not courts that do scientific researches or issue decrees; they are institutions for policy-making. That is what is commonly known," said Gul.