TURKEY’S BABACAN SAYS SOME OF EU CRITICISM IS UNFAIR

Nov 5 2008
Turkey

EU officials said that Turkey has been too slow in its reforms
last year.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said Ankara thought some of the
criticism was unfair during his visit to Rome.

EU aspirants must undergo wide-ranging political, economic, social and
regulatory reforms to adopt EU laws and be on par with other members.

The EU executive said in an annual enlargement report on Wednesday
that Turkey needed to step up work on issues such as human rights,
judicial reform, on civilian oversight of the powerful military and
drafting a new constitution.

The Chairman of the Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Committee Joost
Lagendijk and European Parliament’s Rapporteur on Turkey Ria
Oomen-Ruijten said Wednesday that Turkey has been too slow in its
reforms last year.

"Turkey has been too slow in its reforms and I regret that the European
Commission has not made this lack of progress clear enough in its
report. The European Commission should have given Turkey a clear
warning. Turkey’s lack of reform could jeopardize their chances of
EU membership," Lagendijk said.

"The European Commission report focuses on Turkey’s strategic
importance to the region. The EU welcomes the progress recently made by
Turkey with its neighbor Armenia. This is a positive development. But
the European Commission and the Turkish government risk placing too
much emphasis on Turkey’s strategic importance. The EU must make clear
that progress made in foreign policy is no excuse for Turkey to drag
its feet on internal reforms, especially where freedom of expression
and human rights are concerned," Lagendijk said.

"One of the inadequate internal reforms is this year’s modification
of Article 301 regarding "insulting the Turkish nation". The EU
anticipated that this would lead to fewer charges, but this was
unfortunately not the case," Lagendijk said.

Ria Oomen-Ruijten is uncertain if the Turkish Government still intends
to continue with its reform process.

"As the Commission concludes in its report, progress in the last
year has been very limited. Very few of the issues highlighted in
the European Parliament’s Resolutions have been addressed. Looking
back at the developments in Turkey in the last year, I wonder whether
the Turkish Government is still willing to continue with the reform
process. There has been no update of the national reform plan which
was adopted several years ago," Oomen-Ruijten said.

"I am concerned by the ongoing polarization of the Turkish society. I
urge the leaders of the political parties to seriously seek dialog
and to agree, in the spirit of compromise, on a reform agenda for
the modernization of Turkey," Oomen-Ruijten said.

"Impatience in the European Parliament is growing. We need a clear
signal from Turkey that it wishes to continue with the integration
process to which it committed itself in 2005," Oomen-Ruijten also said.