TURKEY’S progress towards meeting EU membership criteria is uneven and despite having bolstered democratic institutions it must show greater respect for human rights, the European Commission said yesterday.
In its annual progress report on countries aspiring to join the bloc, the EU executive also chided Ankara for failing, for another year, to normalise relations with EU member Cyprus.
However, the Commission did not propose any sanctions for Turkey’s failure to meet its commitment to open ports and airports to Greek Cypriot air and sea traffic.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule told reporters later that member states should not open the eight EU–Turkey negotiation chapters, which have been frozen, saying that Ankara had not yet fulfilled its obligation to implement the Customs Union Protocol with the Republic of Cyprus.
Fule said that it was a matter of credibility for Turkey, stressing that if Ankara wished to open the eight blocked chapters, it has to implement the Customs Union Protocol with Cyprus.
Meanwhile, according to EU sources, during yesterday’s Commission meeting, Cypriot Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth Androulla Vassiliou referred to the Cyprus problem and Turkey’s obligations towards Cyprus and the EU, the Cyprus News Agency reported.
Vassiliou said the Commission report urged Turkey to take concrete steps in those two directions, but Ankara has not made any progress nor has it contributed to the efforts to solve the Cyprus problem, she said.
Vassiliou said that the recognition of the Republic of Cyprus by Ankara was of the utmost importance, saying that Turkey’s EU negotiations could not continue as long as Ankara continued refusing to recognise a state, which is member of the EU.
Turkey’s chief European Union negotiator Egemen Bagis voiced his satisfaction over the report, saying it was the most positive report to date.
“The fact that the specific report is more positive in relation to the previous ones shows that Turkey has achieved progress in its course towards the EU,” Bagis was quoted as saying.
The Turkish official noted that in the past the EU reports included the lists of unsolved murders and torture incidents while now they dealt with technical sensitivities.
“I am not saying Turkey is perfect … she has to solve very important issues,” Bagis said. But “compared to the past, Turkey is at a much better point.”
“We have started to taste, to smell full accession,” he said. “The fact that the European Commission found that Turkey achieved progress in all chapters signals better days.”
