Annual EU report chides Turkey for slowing down its reform drive

Ankara reasserts its commitment to join bloc but says some of the criticism is ‘unfair’

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn addresses a news conference at EU Commission headquarters in Brussels yesterday. Croatia may wrap up entry talks with the EU next year if the country steps up preparations, but Turkey still has a lot more work to do, the Commission said.

By Ibon Villelabeitia - Reuters

ANKARA - European Union candidate Turkey said yesterday it was determined to pursue its bid to join the 27-member bloc after the European Commission urged Ankara in a progress report to speed up long-stalled reforms.

Turkey, a large and predominantly Muslim country, started EU entry talks in 2005, but reforms have since slowed, partly over its refusal to normalize relations with bloc member Cyprus.

«Membership in the EU is a strategic aim of our country. We are fully determined to implement the political and economic criteria that will allow our people to attain the highest standards in all fields,» the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The EU executive said in an annual enlargement report yesterday that Turkey had made little progress on required reforms and needed to step up work on issues such as human rights, judicial reform, civilian oversight of the powerful military and drafting a new constitution. «Some progress has been achieved in the areas of freedom of expression, the rights of non-Muslim religious communities and in promoting the economic development of the southeast. However, a consistent and comprehensive program of political reforms is needed,» the Commission said.

While the Commission declared Turkey a functioning market economy - a crucial step for eventual EU membership - it also said reforms had stalled due to a political crisis linked to a constitutional case against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Turkish markets, focused largely on the global economic crisis, shrugged off the Commission's report. «This criticism is unlikely to have any market impact, as the expectations over the accession process are already weak and the market is totally focused on the global financial crisis,» Yarkin Cebeci, an analyst at JP Morgan Chase, said in a note.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan told a news conference in Rome, «We think that the report is balanced in general... but there are criticisms in the report that we think are unfair.» He said Ankara would reply to Brussels in the coming weeks.

The AKP, which took office in 2002 promising to bring Turkey into the EU, has blamed tensions between the government and secularists for consuming Turkey's political energy but has vowed a new EU push for 2008 and 2009. Numerous promises in the past to speed up reforms have not been met, and with local elections in March and a slowing economy, few analysts expect bold moves.

Turkey has so far opened eight of the 35 chapters of reform work required for EU accession and hopes to start two more before the end of the year. During an interview with a small group of foreign media on Saturday, Babacan said Turkey was well aware of what was expected from it and said the reform agenda was on track.

«Like every long road journey, you have different road conditions and weather conditions. The important thing is to get to the destination,» he said.

BRUSSELS (AFP) - Kosovo is plagued by corruption and organized crime and has little will to fight the problem, the European Commission said yesterday in its first progress report since the region broke away from Serbia.

«Corruption is still widespread and remains a major problem in Kosovo,» said the report. «This is due to insufficient legislative and implementing measures and a lack of determination and the weakness of the judicial system,» it said.

The report said its ethnic Albanian leaders had no strategy to fight organized crime. «The determination and capacity required to effectively tackle organized crime is lacking,» it said. «The police tend to focus on maintaining order rather than on organized crime.» The justice system lacked the capacity to tackle crimes such as human trafficking while prosecutors and judges were working under such poor pay and conditions that they were no longer motivated, it added. On drug trafficking it said simply, «There has been no progress to report.»

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Croatia could wrap up entry talks with the European Union next year if it steps up preparations, the European Commission said yesterday.

The annual enlargement report by the EU executive body is the latest signal that while the bloc may expand one more time to usher in Croatia after its historic eastward enlargement of 2004-2007, the jury is out on any further expansion. «It is not a blank check for Croatia. The ball is firmly in Croatia's court,» EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said.

While the report gives no actual entry date, diplomats say Croatia, a former Yugoslav state of 4.4 million, could become the EU's 28th member in 2011 if it concludes accession talks next year and the standard procedures are completed on time.

«What matters is that EU membership is no longer beyond the horizon, but is something visible,» Prime Minister Ivo Sanader told a news conference in Zagreb.