EU slams Turkey in draft progress report
Sun Jun 18, 2006 12:40 PM BST
Reuters
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The EU criticises the Turkish military's role in politics, a lack of reform and minority rights and relations with Cyprus in the draft of a progress report due later this year, a newspaper reported on Sunday.
The European Union is due to publish a progress report on Ankara's entry bid in October or November, a year after the start of negotiations, which turned frosty on Friday when Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said he would sooner see talks suspended than make concessions over Cyprus.
Turkey's Cumhuriyet newspaper cited EU sources on Sunday as saying the first draft criticised Turkey's refusal to open its ports to Cyprus, as the EU demands, before the bloc lifts trade restrictions on Turkish Cypriots in breakaway northern Cyprus.
The paper said the draft also notes a slowdown in political reform, the military's continuing influence over political institutions and calls for more work for judicial independence and rights for women and minorities.
It says conditions in the poor, mainly Kurdish southeast, where security forces are fighting separatist guerrillas, have deteriorated and criticises relations with traditional enemies and neighbours Greece and Armenia.
The European Commission's enlargement spokeswoman, Krisztina Nagy, said the report was still a long way off. "I don't think a consolidated draft report exists at this stage. In any case it is much too early to speculate on its content," she said.
The newspaper said the draft would be amended, but the sources did not expect many fundamental changes.
"This is standard EU criticism of Turkey," said an official in Brussels who asked not to be named. "It was present in last year's report and it is likely to be in this year's report."
EU leaders at a summit in Brussels on Friday replied to Erdogan's Cyprus comments by calling on Turkey to let shipping from the tiny Mediterranean island use Turkish ports this year.
Last week Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker was quoted as saying membership talks should be frozen if Turkey does not open its ports this year.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has said Turkey, which is not expected to join the wealthy bloc until 2015 at the earliest, could be heading for a "train crash" in its accession process and has urged Ankara to step up reforms.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved. | Learn more about Reuters
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
Reuters
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The EU criticises the Turkish military's role in politics, a lack of reform and minority rights and relations with Cyprus in the draft of a progress report due later this year, a newspaper reported on Sunday.
The European Union is due to publish a progress report on Ankara's entry bid in October or November, a year after the start of negotiations, which turned frosty on Friday when Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said he would sooner see talks suspended than make concessions over Cyprus.
Turkey's Cumhuriyet newspaper cited EU sources on Sunday as saying the first draft criticised Turkey's refusal to open its ports to Cyprus, as the EU demands, before the bloc lifts trade restrictions on Turkish Cypriots in breakaway northern Cyprus.
The paper said the draft also notes a slowdown in political reform, the military's continuing influence over political institutions and calls for more work for judicial independence and rights for women and minorities.
It says conditions in the poor, mainly Kurdish southeast, where security forces are fighting separatist guerrillas, have deteriorated and criticises relations with traditional enemies and neighbours Greece and Armenia.
The European Commission's enlargement spokeswoman, Krisztina Nagy, said the report was still a long way off. "I don't think a consolidated draft report exists at this stage. In any case it is much too early to speculate on its content," she said.
The newspaper said the draft would be amended, but the sources did not expect many fundamental changes.
"This is standard EU criticism of Turkey," said an official in Brussels who asked not to be named. "It was present in last year's report and it is likely to be in this year's report."
EU leaders at a summit in Brussels on Friday replied to Erdogan's Cyprus comments by calling on Turkey to let shipping from the tiny Mediterranean island use Turkish ports this year.
Last week Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker was quoted as saying membership talks should be frozen if Turkey does not open its ports this year.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn has said Turkey, which is not expected to join the wealthy bloc until 2015 at the earliest, could be heading for a "train crash" in its accession process and has urged Ankara to step up reforms.
© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved. | Learn more about Reuters
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
posted by Vahe Balabanian at 9:56 AM
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