Turkey resists, EU backtracks on OECD membership for Greek Cyprus

EU retracted from insisting on bloc membership for its members to the OECD last week. The decision of the EU came before the OECD biannual meeting on May 15 when expansion will be discussed.

Greek Cyprus' aspiration for joining the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) faced Turkey's veto one more time. Last week, the European Union delayed the application for bloc membership of its members to the OECD over Turkey's veto, said Turkish sources.

The Turkish Daily News has learned that during a meeting of the OECD's committee of delegates last week, Turkey insisted on opposing “bloc membership” of new EU members including Greek Cyprus, which made the EU take a backward step on bloc membership. Japan, the United States and Canada supported Turkey's position to evaluate each country case by case.

The OECD members will discuss the expansion policy during a bi-annual meeting of representatives on May 15 in Paris. Turkish sources said that among new EU members which joined the EU in 2004 only two are eligible for OECD membership, namely Estonia and Slovenia. Greek Cyprus has applied for OECD membership after becoming an EU member in May 2004.

The EU has been pushing for a simultaneous membership of the EU member states Greek Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Slovenia to the OECD by referring to the “differentiated engagement strategy.”

Brussels was putting pressure on Turkey not to veto the memberships. According to the EU's Negotiation Framework Agreement, Turkey is required to progressively align its policies towards third countries and its positions within international organizations including in relation to the membership by all EU member states of those organizations and arrangements with the policies and positions adopted by the union and its member states.

“Every applicant must be evaluated case by case according to their economies,” said a Turkish diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity to the Turkish Daily News. He also noted that the decision is made by the consensus of all members.

The OECD has 30 members, 19 of which are also EU members. The expansion of the organization will be discussed once more on April 12 and May 5 and then the bi-annual meeting will be held on May 15 in Paris.

The United States favors the membership of Brazil, China, India and Russia rather than the small countries, said the same diplomat. The global economic output of OECD members has been decreasing for more then 5 years.