"Austria blocks Turkey's road to EU membership
Nicholas Watt in Brussels
Wednesday September 14, 2005
The Guardian
Turkey will today face a new setback to its EU ambition when Austria declares that it is wrong to open membership talks with Ankara while blocking Austria's near neighbour - and fellow Christian country - Croatia.
At a meeting of EU ambassadors in Brussels, Austria is likely to succeed in convening an emergency meeting of foreign ministers days before the start of Turkey's EU membership talks on October 3. The timing of the Austrian intervention is significant. A taskforce of EU ministers, including Jack Straw and the putative EU foreign minister Javier Solana, is expected to pronounce on Croatia a few days before the emergency meeting on 26 September."
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