By Thomas Grove - Reuters

ISTANBUL – Turkey has picked a new chief negotiator in an effort to revive its flagging drive to join the European Union.

The appointment of Egemen Bagis as the country’s first full-time EU negotiator precedes a trip by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Brussels next week and comes as Ankara faces a decisive year in 2009 to speed up reforms.

Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country, began EU accession talks in 2005 but has made slow progress due to internal divisions, dwindling enthusiasm for the bloc at home and a lack of appetite for further enlargement among EU states.

Bagis, whose appointment was announced late on Thursday, is an Erdogan adviser on foreign affairs who speaks fluent English and French.

Entry negotiations were previously headed by Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, who was criticized in some quarters for a lackluster performance on EU ties and is preoccupied with the Middle East crisis and Turkey’s two-year stint as a member of the UN Security Council.

Analysts said the appointment indicates Erdogan is trying to show Brussels that Turkey is serious about its EU ambitions.

Europeans have long asked for a full-time EU negotiator.

“They are trying to signal that they are going to start taking the EU more seriously and that they want to mollify the view that Turkey has gone cold on the EU,” said Semih Idiz, a columnist for liberal daily Milliyet.

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told Reuters in an interview last month that 2009 will be an important “litmus test” of whether Turkey is serious about EU reforms.

The EU wants Turkey to reform its constitution and improve freedom of expression, and religious and linguistic rights, to be in line with EU standards.