A chance for the EU to cover itself in glory

The summit in Copenhagen that started last night really is a big chance for the European Union to recover some of its weakened credibility.

If its leaders can rise to the challenge of history, they can this weekend secure three great, interlocking achievements. First, they can re-unite Cyprus, divided since the Turkish invasion of 1974. A formula for a loose confederation of two autonomous sectors provides the basis for agreement. If that could be secured, Cyprus could be held up as an inspiration, along with Northern Ireland and possibly Sri Lanka, that even the most intractable of disputes can be solved by patient negotiation.

Second, and this would be part of the price of that settlement, EU leaders could secure Turkish consent to Nato sharing its resources with the EU, so that the Union could have a common security policy worth the name. Third, and again this would be part of the price of a Cyprus deal, they could set a date for the start of negotiations for Turkey to join the EU itself.

That would be a prize beyond price, whatever the Pope might say about how the EU should remain a "Christian" entity. Opening accession talks with Turkey would be worthwhile in itself.

To those who protest that the country has a poor human rights record, it should be answered that the very process of negotiation will act as a sharp spur to improvement – just as it did for Spain and Portugal, shaking off the legacies of Franco and Salazar. Nor were human rights in the Czech republic and Slovakia so pristine when they applied – until recently we accepted that many people leaving those countries had a "well-founded fear of persecution".

But opening the way for a large Muslim but secular state to join is right for the EU in any case. This weekend the Union can prove that it is capable of turning itself outwards, free of hang-ups about race and religion, to start to draw the Muslim world closer to the values of democracy and human rights that we profess.

Measured against geopolitical ambitions on such a scale, the problem of Polish farm subsidies seems a little local difficulty that should be resolved quickly and easily. Europe's leaders must rise to the moment.