PanARMENIAN.Net

EU concerned about slow reform in Turkey
23.05.2008 15:05 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The European Commission warned
membership-hopeful Turkey yesterday not to slip back
in its reform process, saying it could not afford
-another wasted year.-

Speaking in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, EU
Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said the EU
executive body was concerned about the slow pace of
reform in Turkey.

Turkey started EU accession talks in 2005 but they
have been held back by slow progress in EU-linked
reforms, the impact of the unresolved Cyprus dispute,
and the reluctance of some EU members, such as France
and Austria, to see Turkey join.

Rehn noted concerns about moves by Turkey’s chief
prosecutor to shut down the ruling Justice and
Development Party (AKP), and ban Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul from
politics for alleged Islamist subversion.

Intervening in a case that threatens Turkey’s bid to
join the EU, the European Parliament called for
constitutional amendments that would prevent Turkish
courts from outlawing democratically elected parties.

Turkey needs to observe European standards, the
Parliament said in a motion passed by lawmakers
467-62. It criticized an attempt by Turkish
prosecutors to get the Constitutional Court to ban
Erdogan’s party a year after his re-election.

-Closing down a political party is not and cannot be
business as usual,- Rehn, the EU’s pointman for the
entry talks, told the Parliament. -It cannot be taken
lightly in a European democracy.-

The Parliament called on Turkey -to bring the
constitution into line- with European principles on
courts’ oversight of political parties.

The warning was coupled with a separate EU
announcement that the entry negotiations will inch
ahead next month, in a show of support for Erdogan in
his bid to anchor Turkey among the western
democracies.

In the Constitutional Court case that aims to bring
Erdogan down, prosecutors argue that the prime
minister’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) is
subverting the religious freedoms that date back to
the founding of modern Turkey in, the Turkish Daily
News reports.