Energy pushes Turkey and EU closer

The European Union has to speed up membership talks with Turkey because it badly needs the nation as a reliable energy partner, José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, said Monday.

Barroso said he would push to get talks moving again on Turkey's EU membership bid as the bloc searches for alternative energy routes after an energy dispute between Ukraine and Russia left many EU nations short of natural gas. One option is the Nabucco pipeline, which is being planned to bypass the feuding nations and carry Caspian natural gas through Turkey to Europe.

Erdogan said his country was ready to play a key role to help EU energy security. "Turkey is not coming to the EU to become a burden; we are coming to relieve some burdens off the shoulders of the European Union," he said.

The EU has suspended membership negotiations in 8 of 35 different policy areas, over Turkey's refusal to recognize Cyprus, an EU member, and to open its ports to the small island nation. Only 10, less important, files have been opened for negotiation.

Diplomats say Cyprus has been blocking the opening of talks in the energy area because of a dispute with Turkey over gas exploration at sea. Energy is one of the 35 areas, or so-called chapters, in Turkey's accession talks. Barroso told said that an issue as important as energy security should not be made conditional upon such a specific issue.

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Cyprus signs deal to ferry water from Greece

Drought-hit Cyprus signed an agreement with a Cypriot shipping firm to ferry eight million cubic metres of water from Greece to help ease the island's water crisis. Most households on the Mediterranean island, a major tourist destination, have water only four days a week after the government last month reduced supplies to local authorities by a third to try to tackle the shortage.The aim is for the additional water to start arriving from June to help the island endure a long hot summer.
"The shortage is in the order of 16 million cubic metres until the end of the year," said Agriculture Minister Michalis Polynikis after signing the deal with Ocean Tankers. "The Greek government has pledged to give us 8 million cubic metres. There is an option to increase this amount. Any increase depends on the goodwill of the Greek government and any needs that may arise," he added. Shipping water to Cyprus from Greece will take a 160 days to complete, said Ocean Tankers chairman Michalis Ioannides.

A chronic water shortage has been brought on by a two-year-long drought, unseasonal weather rising above 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), and the failure of on-the-spot fines to deter those wasting water. Cyprus's reservoirs are now at 9.8 percent of capacity, down from 25 percent this time last year.

AFP

Peace talks on Cyprus to restart

The Cypriot president and the Turkish Cypriot leader have agreed to resume talks on reunifying the island. The deal was struck at a meeting between Demetris Christofias and Mehmet Ali Talat in Nicosia - the first such high-profile talks since 2006.

The two men also agreed to reopen a key crossing in the divided capital.

"This is a new era we are starting for the solution of the Cyprus problem," Mr Talat said after the meeting in a UN buffer zone near the abandoned Nicosia airport. "We shall try our utmost in order to come to an agreed solution for the interest of the Cypriot people, both communities, as soon as possible," President Christofias said.

In a joint statement, the leaders said they agreed that advisers from both sides would meet next week to set up groups to work out detailed agendas for the peace talks.

Merkel Slams Sarko's Med Union Scheme

The German Chancellor warns Sarkozy his proposal for a Mediterranean union of European, North African, and Middle Eastern nations would hurt the EU
German chancellor Angela Merkel has warned that French plans for a Mediterranean Union risk splitting the EU. Speaking at a conference in Berlin on Wednesday (5 December), Ms Merkel indicated that if French president Nicolas Sarkozy pushed ahead with his proposals for a union of countries from Europe, the Middle East and North Africa the "core" of the European Union would be threatened.

The chancellor said that "cooperation between some member states has to be also open to the rest and it has to be approved by all member states." It cannot be that some countries establish a Mediterranean Union and fund this with money from EU coffers, said the German leader. "This could release explosive forces in the union I would not like," she said, according to news agency DPA.

Mr Sarkozy floated the idea for such a union during his presidential campaign earlier this year. Since becoming president in May, he has elaborated on the proposal saying in October that "in the Mediterranean will be decided whether or not civilisations and religions will wage the most terrible of wars...whether or not the North and the South will clash".

Under the plans, the group would tie southern Europe with Northern Africa as well as Israel and its Arab neighbours and tackle topical issues such as counter-terrorism, immigration, energy, trade, water and sustainable development. Just seven EU states -- Cyprus, Greece, France, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain -- are envisioned to take part.
Mr Sarkozy's Mediterranean Union idea -- he suggested on Wednesday that France and Algeria be the main axis of the Union -- has also raised eyebrows in Brussels. The European Commission fears it will undermine the 12-year-old Barcelona process, aimed at promoting dialogue between the EU and ten countries on the southern and eastern shores of the Mediterranean.

There are also fears that it is a ruse to enmesh Turkey – which would be a member – into the process and detract from its current EU negotiations, with Mr Sarkozy being strongly opposed to Ankara's EU membership bid.

Business Week

Cyprus water crisis highlights climate change

"It's bad. Very bad," says Vlassis Partassides, head of water management at Cyprus's water development department. "If the drought continues for a fourth year, the consequences will be very severe," he told Reuters.

Partassiades said that since 1972, rainfall had fallen by 20 percent but the runoff -- the inflow into reservoirs -- had declined by 40 percent, because of rising temperatures and the resulting increase in evaporation. "Climate change is clearly evidenced in Cyprus," said Costas Papastavros, head of the island's national climate change unit.

"Climate change is not only about a rise in temperature, but also about extreme weather conditions, and drought is one of them. Desertification is also becoming a serious problem. "It is not just that we do not have water in dams for irrigation, but we are looking at a decline in the productivity of soil, and we have a tremendous problem."

EU should inform Turkey of defence plans

France wants the European Union to keep Turkey better informed about its military plans in a bid to end a dispute blocking cooperation between the EU and NATO, diplomats said on Friday.

NATO member Turkey is holding up efforts by the two institutions to coordinate separate security missions in the breakaway Serbian province of Kosovo in protest at what it says is the EU's failure to consult it properly on defence matters. The French proposal would provide Ankara with greater information about EU defence planning without giving it a say in decision-making, diplomats familiar with the initiative said.

Reactions to any proposal is unclear given Ankara's declaration that it is preparing to make military incursions into northern Iraq to battle some 3,000 Kurdish rebels who use the area as a base to fight for an independent homeland.The U.S. has urged Ankara not to take unilateral action. The EU, which Turkey wants to join, has also cautioned against such moves.

Turkey says the EU is not living up to a promise made at an October 2002 summit to have "permanent and continuing consultations with the non-EU European allies, covering the full range of security, defence and crisis management issues".

It also accuses non-NATO EU member Cyprus of vetoing its bid to become an associate member of the European Defence Agency, the body coordinating reforms of the EU's defence sectors. That issue is not explicitly addressed by the French initiative.

"It should not be just on paper but should mean concrete steps. But that doesn't mean this is not a positive development, coming from a major EU state," said one Turkish source."We want to become more involved in European security and development policy and so we think there should be better modalities (for us to do so)."