The COREPER, a body made up of the EU ambassadors who prepare meetings of the Council of Ministers, will try again today to reach an agreement on a negotiating framework for Turkey, without which talks with Ankara, scheduled to start on October 3, cannot be launched.
If the ambassadors fail to reach an agreement, the issue will be transferred to the EU ministers, who are expected to meet in Luxembourg on Sunday evening if no agreement is reached by that time.
The results of the talks on Turkey will determine when the meeting of the EU task force for Croatia will be held. If the task force gives a positive evaluation of Croatia's Action Plan, which is aimed at solving the case of runaway general Ante Gotovina, this would pave the way for the start of accession talks, which were postponed in March this year after Croatia's cooperation with the Hague tribunal was assessed as insufficient.
If the COREPER meeting fails, the British presidency wants to give the ministers enough time to discuss Turkey on Sunday evening and it plans to reschedule the meeting of the task force for Croatia, initially planned for Sunday evening, to take place on Monday morning, before the EU Council meeting at which talks with Turkey are expected to be opened, diplomatic sources say.
Austria is the only country opposing the negotiating framework for Turkey.
Although all officially state that Croatia and Turkey are two separate cases, Austria has insisted at all meetings that it is inappropriate to start talks with Turkey and leave Croatia in the waiting room.