Westerwelle talks Turkey

“Westerwelle urges EU to engage Turkey,” leads the Wall Street Journal Europe. In an interview with the American business daily, Germany’s Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has called on the European Union to step up talks with Turkey over the country's accession bid. Recent constitutional reform there, he argues, “is a step in the right direction. It shows that Turkey wants a European future and has a European perspective.” Such talk is likely to cloud Westerwelle’s already troubled relations with his coalition partner Chancellor Merkel, firmly opposed to Turkish membership. “We must recognize that the power balance of the world is changing,” the minister countered. “It sometimes amazes me how self-assuredly countries that are influential today assume that things will always be that way.”