MEPS PREPARE CRITICAL REPORT ON TURKEY
By Honor Mahony

EUobserver.com, Belgium
Aug. 30, 2006

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Almost a year after Turkey officially opened
EU membership talks with Brussels, MEPs are preparing a report strongly
critical of the country’s progress on human rights issues.

The 11-page draft report, drawn up by Dutch centre-right MEP Camiel
Eurlings, says the the European Parliament "deplores the fact that
only limited progress has been reported over the last year as regards
fundamental rights and freedoms" and "deplores the absence of progress
in the area of freedom of religion since parliament’s last report."

It notes in the preamble that "freedom of expression is far from
satisfactory" and that "corruption remains a serious problem."

The resolution also stresses that EU member states’ negotiations with
the country, opened last year in October, represent an "open-ended
process and does not lead a priori and automatically to accession."

Managing Turkey Tapping into a hot discussion held earlier this
year on whether the EU will manage to take on board the huge and
poor country, the draft also states the "EU’s capacity to absorb
Turkey while maintaining the momentum of integration is an important
consideration…".

The key topic of Ankara’s non-recognition of Cyprus also features with
the report reminding Turkey that changing this remains a "necessary
component of the accession process."

However, it does also note some positive aspects of Turkey’s EU efforts
saying that it "welcomes the adoption of the law on internally placed
people" and "recognises the improvements in legislation … as regards
the policy of zero tolerance towards torture."

The report, which appears annually, is causing the usual ripples
in the EU assembly with MEPs proposing 343 amendments – around 115
pages. Currently, they are trying to forge agreement on eight pages of
"compromise amendments."

MEPs from across the political spectrum are trying to get their view
point into the report with comments on the new anti-terror laws in
Turkey, on honour killings, on the genocide in Armenia and on changing
the electoral threshold for representation in the parliament.

The Cyprus issue The report is due to be voted on in the foreign
affairs committee on Monday (4 September) and will then be put before
the whole of the parliament, probably in late September.

The parliament is keen to get its vote and opinion on the table as
quickly as possible so it can influence the European Commission’s
annual report on Turkey’s accession progress – due out on 26 October.

For its part, the commission’s report is set to be highly critical of
Ankara’s continued refusal to implement the Ankara protocol with the EU
having repeatedly urged Turkey to lift its embargo on Cypriot-flagged
vessels and aircraft as part of the country’s membership negotiations.

Turkey’s signature of the protocol extending a customs accord with
the EU to the bloc’s 10 new states – including Cyprus – should result
in the embargo being lifted.

Ankara has indicated that any concessions to Nicosia would be
dependent on moves by the EU to end the economic isolation of the
Turkish-populated north of Cyprus – a stance Brussels has rejected.

A critical report by Brussels and continued resistance by Ankara on
the Cyprus issue is set to bring the whole issue to a political head
later this autumn.