TURKEY must push harder to help reunite Cyprus if it is to have a serious chance of starting talks on joining the European Union, an EU Commission official said in Brussels yesterday.
“If the problem is not resolved by the end of 2004, it will be a serious obstacle to opening accession negotiations,” the official told Reuters news agency, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“There are plenty of people who won’t like that, but that’s the way it is.”
Cyprus is due to join the EU on May 1, 2004, and the Union hopes to see the island reunited before May.
But in a report on Turkey’s progress towards EU accession negotiations, due for publication on November 5 and obtained by Reuters, the bloc’s executive Commission said Turkish co-operation had been reasonably good so far.
“The Turkish government has on several occasions confirmed its support for efforts to find a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem,” it said. “Relations between Turkey and Greece continue to evolve positively.”
In other areas, the report said, Turkey has moved forward in political and economic reforms as it seeks to start membership talks, but still has a long way to go.
“Overall, progress has been made, but substantial efforts are still necessary to complete the tasks foreseen for the period 2003-2004,” it said.
If a similar appraisal, to be published at the end of next year, shows Turkey has met all targets set by the EU, the bloc’s leaders could decide to set a date for opening accession talks.
But while this year’s report praises Ankara’s willingness to pass reform, it makes clear implementation still lags behind.
It noted that four major political reform packages had been adopted over the last year, some of them in sensitive areas such as freedom of expression, freedom of demonstration, cultural rights and civilian control of the military.
“However, in spite of some positive developments on the ground, the reforms have produced limited practical effects. So far, implementation has been slow and uneven,” it said.
Rights abuses remained a stumbling block to Turkey’s EU bid, with torture still a source of concern.
Ankara had promised “zero tolerance” of torture and strengthened legislation, the report said, but added: “While implementation has led to some concrete results, the situation is uneven and torture cases persist.”
The report noted several positive developments on economic reform, but drew attention to continuing corruption.
“Surveys continue to indicate that corruption remains a very serious problem in Turkey … 80 per cent of businessmen believe that corruption is the main obstacle preventing foreign investment,” it said.
“Progress on structural reforms has been slow, but the implementation of measures adopted in 2001 and 2002 shows encouraging results,” it added.
