TURKEY MUST MEET EU DEMANDS OR RISK HALT OF TALKS: EU LAWMAKERS
Playfuls.com, Romania
Aug 5 2006
The European Union will put the brakes on accession talks with Turkey
if the bloc’s demands on faster reforms and normalization of ties
with Cyprus are not met, a key European lawmaker said Tuesday.
"We hope and expect that Turkey will do now what it failed to do
in the last two years," said Camiel Eurlings, a Dutch conservative
member of the EU Parliament whose report on Turkey was adopted late
Monday by the assembly’s foreign affairs committee.
"Turkey must re-start reforms vigorously or otherwise risk a halt of
negotiations," said Eurlings in remarks to Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
Eurlings’ report warns Turkey once again that current membership
talks with Turkey are "open-ended" and that Ankara’s entry into the
25-nation club is by no means guaranteed.
It says that as a condition for EU membership, Turkey must acknowledge
the genocide against Armenians in World War I.
It also slams Ankara on a deteriorating human rights record and
slow reforms.
"It is important that the reforms be given impetus from within the
country by the authorities themselves and are not merely the result
of pressure from outside Turkey," EU lawmakers stressed.
Referring to growing public unease at the EU’s eastward expansion,
the report highlights that the bloc’s "capacity to absorb Turkey while
maintaining the momentum of integration is an important consideration."
EU lawmakers in the past have never vetoed any accession bid.
However, the parliament’s biggest and most influential conservative
group favours a so-called "privileged partnership" with Turkey.
The report will be submmitted for vote to a plenary session of the
European Parliament at the end of September.
Parliamentarians’ concerns are also likely to be raised when
chief Turkish EU negotiator Ali Babacan meets with EU enlargement
commissioner Olli Rehn on Wednesday.
Rehn has warned of a "train crash" in Turkey’s EU negotiations when
he delivers a crucial progress report scheduled for October 24.
The EU last week told Turkey that its continued refusal to open
harbours and airports to ships and planes from EU member Cyprus could
cause a crisis in the talks.
The EU has often told Turkey that if it maintains the current ban on
Cyprus, Ankara’s EU membership negotiations regarding crucial single
market issues could be derailed.
Turkey began negotiations aimed at EU membership last year. Talks
are expected to take up to 15 years.