INTERVIEWER:

Today is meant to be the day that Europe fulfils a forty year old promise it made to Turkey, that it would start talks on Turkey joining the European club. But last night EU Foreign Ministers were struggling to agree on whether the talks should even start. They’ll resume their discussions this morning. The sticking point is Austria. It wants to stop short of full membership, offering a partnership instead. But for Turkey that’s not enough. Well we’re joined now from Luxembourg by the Europe Minister Douglas Alexander. Good morning.

DOUGLAS ALEXANDER:

Good morning Sarah.

QUESTION:

Are you confident some sort of deal can be reached?

DOUGLAS ALEXANDER:

Well we’ve been working hard to try and secure that agreement. The discussions ended about two thirty this morning and we’ve started a whole series of further discussions since a couple of hours ago. Basically amongst Ministers and officials there’s a huge amount of work under way at the moment to establish if there is a way that Austria can join the other twenty four members of the European Union in agreeing that those accession talks should start with Turkey today. I can’t give you a definitive answer on that question at the moment but I can assure you we’re striving hard to find a way through.

QUESTION:

But what is, what is your sense of whether they are going to come round?

DOUGLAS ALEXANDER:

Well I can’t predict at this stage where the course of our conversations this morning will take us. I equally won’t set an arbitrary deadline at this stage because negotiations have their own momentum. What I’m heartened by none the less was the strength of feeling around the table last night when each of the other twenty four states of the European Union made clear their commitment to uphold the decision that was reached by the Heads of Government of Europe back in December of 2004 when this deadline of October the 3rd was originally set.

QUESTION:

So it is Austria alone? Because, because the concern that Austria has voiced, this idea of perhaps offering a partnership instead, has been voiced by other countries, notably France as well, but are they all coming, apart from Austria, coming (indistinct) behind Britain on this?

DOUGLAS ALEXANDER:

Well yes I was in the British seat last night as Jack Straw chaired the meeting on behalf on the British Presidency and as I say I was very heartened by the strength of feeling. The French spoke, the Greeks spoke, there was a really a very strong consensus amongst the other member states that this was now the time to open those accession talks with Turkey ... and there was an understanding of the importance of the decision that was reached back in December. But that being said there are clearly difficult issues for Austria and that’s why it’s important we strive to find a way forward this morning.

QUESTION:

It has been suggested that Austria could be brought round if there was some deal available allowing for Croatia’s accession, the beginning of that. Is that something that you’re considering today?

DOUGLAS ALEXANDER:

No we’ve been clear from the outset that the case for Turkish membership of the European Union and Croatian membership stands on their own merits and needs to be judged on the basis of the criteria that was set for membership for each of those respective countries. What is clear is that we won’t be able to get to a discussion of the Croatia Ministerial Task Force which was due to meet at nine thirty this morning until we’ve resolved this issue in relation to Turkey. So we’re entirely focused on the discussions that started last night, went late in to the night and are already under way again this morning.

QUESTION:

But is there anything that Austria is asking for, are you, or you are able to offer Austria to make them feel that it is worth going, coming, coming in to line on, on Turkey?

DOUGLAS ALEXANDER:

Well I think your initial report was right in reflecting the Austrian concerns in terms of alternatives to full membership. There our position is understandably constrained by the terms of the European Council’s decision back in December which was that there was a shared objective of full membership of accession to the European Union for Turkey. The second point that’s been raised in the course of the discussions is on a broader question of the European Union’s capacity to absorb as large a country as Turkey. We’re having discussions as you would imagine with the Austrians. I’ve just left a discussion with Doctor Ursula Plassnik the Foreign Minister of Austria to come and do this interview. Whether those issues can be addressed by drafting changes or whether it turns out that there’s a more fundamental division between Austria and the other twenty four members, time will tell.

QUESTION:

So are you prepared to consider some sort of different arrangement for Turkey?

DOUGLAS ALEXANDER:

No, as I say, we’ve been very clear from the outset that we’re seeking to give expression today to a decision that was reached by the Heads of Government of all of the twenty five members of the European Union ...

QUESTION:

So it’s absolutely full membership, nothing else?

DOUGLAS ALEXANDER:

Yes, we’ve been very clear that the shared objective of the European Union is full accession for Turkey.

QUESTION:

Do you think there’s an element of anti Muslim feeling (indistinct) within Austria against Turkey?

DOUGLAS ALEXANDER:

No I wouldn’t make those kind of aspersions or suggestions. I think what’s important at this stage is that we work effectively with our Austrian partners to try and resolve the difficulties that they’ve brought to the table, conscious of course of the fact that the Chancellor of Austria, Chancellor Schussel, joined other European leaders back in December in accepting the shared objective of accession to the European Union. That conversation was the substance of what was a very wide ranging debate around the table last night where Foreign Minister after Foreign Minister made clear the broader issues that are at stake here. It’s not simply a question of energy or of the economy or of security. There are profound geo political reasons why we believe it would be disadvantageous not just to Turkey itself but profoundly disadvantageous to the European Union ... if we were to fail to find a way forward today.

QUESTION:

And this meeting that you just came from with Ursula Plassnik, Austria’s Foreign Minister, did you get the sense that, that they were moving at all?

DOUGLAS ALEXANDER:

Well it’s a series of ongoing meetings. I mean we’ve now met, myself and Jack Straw, with Ursula I think five times since we arrived in Luxembourg yesterday afternoon. Two of those meetings have lasted longer than an hour. So you’ll appreciate I don’t want to give a running commentary on every drafting detail of those discussion. But we’re increasingly aware of where respectively the twenty four members of the Union are and where Austria is. What we need to assess in the hours to come is whether we can none the less now find a way forward and secure the consensus that all of us want.

QUESTION:

Douglas Alexander thank you very much.