Radio Free Europe, Czech Republic
Sept 23 2004
Turkey: EU Commissioner Says ‘No More Obstacles’ To Entry Talks
By Jean-Christophe Peuch
The EU and Turkey today resolved differences that threatened to
derail Turkey’s bid for membership in the bloc. Addressing reporters
after talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, EU
Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said there were no more
conditions for Turkey to fulfill before the European Commission make
its recommendation on Turkish accession, expected in early October.
Prague, 23 September 2004 (RFE/RL) — Verheugen told reporters in
Brussels that the compromise would enable the EU executive to
recommend that the bloc begin entry negotiations with Ankara.
“We have been able to find solutions to the remaining outstanding
problems,” Verheugen said. “So my conclusion is that there are no
more obstacles on the table now. From my point of view, there are no
further conditions which Turkey must fulfill in order to allow the
[EU] commission to make a recommendation.”
Reports said as part of the compromise Turkey would act quickly to
approve a series of penal code reforms — and would drop a
controversial clause that would make adultery a criminal offense.
The European Commission is expected to issue a report on Turkey’s
progress toward democracy on 6 October and decide whether a summit of
the bloc’s leaders should set a date for the beginning of entry talks
when it convenes in mid-December.Turkey has been knocking on Europe’s
door for decades. Although it applied for membership in 1987, it did
not obtain candidate status until 1999 — a delay mainly due to EU
concerns over human rights issues.
Turkey has been knocking on Europe’s door for decades. Although it
applied for membership in 1987, it did not obtain candidate status
until 1999 — a delay mainly due to EU concerns over human rights
issues.
Since taking office two years ago, Erdogan’s Islamic-rooted Justice
and Development party (Adalet ve Kalkinma, or AKP) has pushed through
reforms aimed at bringing national legislation into line with the EU.
Turkey’s AKP-dominated parliament has taken steps to curb the
influence of the military on politics, reform the judiciary and ease
pressure on the country’s 12 million-strong Kurdish minority.
Speaking to journalists late yesterday in Ankara, Erdogan said Turkey
had done its share and now expected a positive reaction from
Brussels: “We’ve already gone beyond the critical threshold required
for adjustment to the [EU] Copenhagen criteria. Actually, what
happened with these EU adjustment reforms is a civic revolution.”
Ankara’s recent decision to shelve key legal changes aimed at
liberalizing its penal code had triggered EU critics and sparked what
Turkish media had described as a “crisis of confidence” between
Turkey and the bloc. The EU Commission made it clear that failure to
adopt the much-awaited reforms within the next two weeks could affect
its conclusions on Turkey’s democracy progress.
At the origin of the delay was a controversy over Turkey’s plans to
reintroduce prison sentences for adultery.
Extramarital relationships were decriminalized by Turkey’s
Constitutional Court in 1996. But Turkey’s conservative AKP cabinet
argued that reversing the decision would help better protect family
values and strengthen women’s rights.
The controversial plans caused a furor in Turkey, with women’s groups
accusing the government of seeking to impose Islamic law and the main
opposition party blaming Erdogan for being under the influence of
“religious sects.”
Erdogan did not give any details on today’s meeting. He simply said
the Turkish parliament would convene in emergency session on 26
September to quickly pass the penal code reform.
But an EU official who attended the talks told the Reuters news
agency that the Turkish prime minister pledged not to include the
controversial adultery bill in the package.
The row had added fuel to the arguments of those who oppose Turkey’s
accession into the EU. Opinions among European leaders and the
general public remain divided over the issue.
Speaking on behalf of representatives of French President Jacques
Chirac’s Union for a Popular Movement in the European legislature,
parliamentarian Jacques Toubon said he believed Ankara should remain
outside the bloc.
“We do not believe accession talks with Turkey should begin. The
European Council should not make such a decision when it meets on 17
December because we believe that to let Turkey become a member of the
EU would contradict our views on the European project and would not
be good for Europe,” Toubon said.
As evidence that Turkey does not qualify for EU membership, Toubon
cited its uneasy relations with its Arab and Iranian neighbors, human
rights violations, the military occupation of Northern Cyprus, and
its reluctance to recognize the massive killings of Armenians at the
beginning of the 20th century as genocide.
He also cited security concerns: “What I believe would be good for
both the European Union and Turkey would be to have a relationship
that would allow Turkey to retain its political autonomy in order to
really be the center, the pivot, and the engine of a Black
Sea-Caucasus stability pact — and God knows if the Caucasus and
neighboring areas need stability. [Turkey] will not be in a position
to achieve this if it is integrated into the EU. It can achieve this
precisely if it is in the intermediary position offered by a
privileged partnership [with the EU].”
But European Commission president-designate Jose Miguel Durao Barroso
today gave Turkey’s EU aspirations a cautious boost. Addressing
reporters after talks with Chirac, Durao Barroso said that provided
the commission issues a favorable recommendation, nothing should
prevent the EU from giving Turkey a date for entry talks.
“It is obvious that the EU’s [possible] enlargement to Turkey poses
an important challenge,” Barroso said. “This is a very important
problem that must be examined in all it various dimensions. I believe
that if Turkey abides by the same criteria that have been set by the
EU, we should support [its] accession [bid]. But this must be
achieved through genuine negotiations. This must not be a mere
formality.”
In an interview with France’s “Le Monde” newspaper earlier this week,
Durao Barroso however warned that Turkey must still make progress to
fully qualify for membership.