EU PARLIAMENT REPORT SAYS TURKEY SLOW ON PROMISED LEGAL REFORMS
Katerina Ossenova at 11:16 AM ET
JURIST
Aug 6 2006
[JURIST] The Foreign Affairs Committee [official website] of the
European Parliament [official website] approved a report Monday taking
Turkey to task for slow progress on a variety of legal and other
reforms agreed to by Ankara as part of its bid [EU backgrounder] for
membership in the European Union [JURIST news archive]. Among other
things, Turkey was criticized [press release] for its "persistent
shortcomings in areas such as freedom of expression, religious and
minority rights, the role of the military, policing, women’s rights,
trade union rights and cultural rights."
The parliamentary committee also called for Turkey to acknowledge
responsibility for the Armenian genocide [JURIST news archive] that
took place during World War One, an admission Turkey has until now
rejected. On the positive side, however, the report also acknowledged
Turkey’s progress [EU Observer report] in opening the first chapter
of EU legislation, introducing new laws to fight corruption and
broadcasting in minority Kurdish.
The text of the report will be debated by the full European Union
Parliament [official website] in September and a formal progress report
on Turkey’s accession progress is due on October 24; the EU has urged
Turkey to make tangible improvements by that time. The European Union
Parliament has never vetoed a past accession bid but if the reform
process is not "reinvigorated," the accession talks could be placed
on hold.