Turkey in the EU?

"We think we should stick to this commitment. The European Commission advocates pursuing these negotiations," Commission spokesman Johannes Laitenberger said at a regular briefing, as quoted by Reuters news service.

The Commission, the European Union's executive arm, was responding to German Chancellor Angela Merkel's reaffirmation of opposition to that goal.

Merkel had reiterated in a speech to her Christian Democratic Union's (CDU) annual party congress on Monday, Dec. 3, that she was opposed to Turkey joining the EU. Instead, she called for a "privileged partnership" between the bloc and Ankara. It's a view shared by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Commission spokesman Laitenberger pointed out, however, that EU states had unanimously agreed in 2005 to open negotiations with Ankara -- with a view to membership if it fulfilled criteria. He said that final decisions about membership should be made at the end of talks.

Merkel distances CDU from SPD

Merkel's comments in her Monday speech were apparently an attempt to demarcate policy differences on Turkey between her conservative CDU and her center-left junior coalition partners, the Social Democrats (SPD).

According to Reuters, EU diplomats said France wanted to have the word "accession" eliminated from the section concerning negotiations with Turkey in a statement on the EU's enlargement policy, which the bloc's foreign ministers are due to approve on Monday.

Ankara has said it wants nothing but membership and has rejected the idea of an "enhanced partnership" with the EU.