The European Union said on Thursday that Turkey's membership negotiations could be halted unless it moves on Cyprus and makes progress on reforms, but the EU hopes to avoid a crisis later this year.Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn was quoted by the Finnish news agency STT as saying, in response to a question, that the EU could suspend talks completely. "There is that possibility. I hope that we don't have to resort to that, but we have no reason not to use it if there are grounds for that," Rehn said.
Finland, which takes over the 25-nation bloc's rotating presidency from July 1, also said that refusal to fulfil an obligation to open Turkish ports and airports to traffic from Cyprus could jeopardize the talks. "This is not a threat. I just want to note the fact that it will cause a serious issue ... in the negotiations and may even endanger the continuation of the negotiations," Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja told a news conference in Brussels.