When it comes to the subject of possible Turkish membership in the European Union, there's never a dull moment. The protagonist this time in this high-stakes drama is Austria. On Thursday, Vienna upped the stakes in the run-up to next week's European Union membership talks with Ankara by demanding that the negotiations be delayed until the option of arriving at a "privileged partnership" is worked into the guidelines. Vienna also demands that the EU pledge to begin similar talks with Croatia.

Austria's 11th hour political posturing has deeply angered Turks, who are keen on getting a full place at the table in Brussels. "We are continuing negotiations," said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but "Turkey will not accept anything less than full membership in the Union. ... There's nothing called privileged partnership because a state which accepts negotiation terms aspires to full EU membership."

Vienna's main motive is driven by its frustration over delays in the start of accession talks with Croatia, which is a short hop south of Austria, shares its Roman Catholic background and has served as a longtime ally. Vienna sees Croatia as the key state through which it can coordinate its interests in the Balkans. Talks were supposed to begin in March, but the EU has delayed them under pressure from the war crimes tribunal in The Hague because Zagreb hasn't been doing a very thorough job of rounding up key figures who committed Balkans war atrocities.

The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung, a staunch proponent of a multicultural Europe, shares Erdogan's pain. "Just hours before accession talks are due to begin," the paper's editorialist writes, "Ankara still doesn't know what the negotiation framework is." The paper goes on to describe the situation as "unacceptable," and asks if the Turkish government will wind up throwing in towel as it reaches the last stretch. That's a very real possibility, it argues, before calling for more honesty from European leaders, whom it accuses of failing to grasp the historical importance of this event. "If they are convinced that the EU and Turkey don't belong together then they should openly resist negotiations instead of trying out new tricks."

The business daily Handelsblatt is also critical of Austria's last-minute trick and says the start of negotiations should not be allowed to fail because of Vienna. "Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang is mistaken if he thinks that Turkey can be fobbed off cheaply," the paper opines. "Anything other than the promised negotiations with the concrete prospect of membership would rob the EU of its credibility and aggravate Turkey for the last time." This, the paper concludes, is not something Europe can afford to allow to happen.

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung praises Wolfgang Schüssel, describing as "daring" the Austrian chancellor's efforts to build in the option of a privileged partnership and standing up against Brussels. "At least one country," the editorialist writes, "wants to shape Europe instead of letting itself be carried along by an automatic process." The paper argues that Schüssel's proposal offers something that the current negotiating plan does not: a guarantee of some kind of relationship with the EU when negotiations end -- either as a member or partner. "A non-relationship that could result in a few years under Brussels' negotiating plan if accession fails, would no longer be possible," it adds. Thus, the paper suggests, Schüssel's proposal would merely give the EU the option in the end of choosing a life partnership rather than marriage.