EU set for showdown with Austria on Turkey

Australia said on Sunday it would work in a ‘‘European spirit’’ to resolve its reservations about the European Union ope...

Australia said on Sunday it would work in a ‘‘European spirit’’ to resolve its reservations about the European Union opening membership talks with Turkey on Monday as EU Foreign Ministers arrived for emergency talks.

EU President Britain told other member states they bore a heavy historical responsibility, warning it would be a failure for Europe if ministers were unable to launch the long-awaited negotiations with Ankara on Monday as promised.

Austria, where public opinion is 80 per cent hostile to admitting the poor, populous, overwhelmingly Muslim candidate to the EU, was alone in demanding that the 25-nation bloc offer an explicit alternative to full membership.

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Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik told reporters on arriving in Luxembourg that she hoped there would be movement, adding: ‘‘We shall work together in a European spirit.’’

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, who had separate talks with Plassnik and with the Cypriot Foreign Minister before he was to chair a dinner of all 25 ministers, said he did not want to contemplate the possibility of an Austrian veto.

‘‘Clearly that would represent a failure for the EU,’’ he told reporters. —Reuters

Termed as GST Bachat Utsav by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, the rate rationalisation is meant to leave more disposable income in the hands of people

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