By Daisy Ayliffe - 31st October 2006
Turkey will be criticised for a lack of progress on freedom of expression, torture and accountability of the military in a European commission report out next week.
FT Deutschland on Tuesday published the commission’s draft report that is due to be published on November 8.
The report on Turkish progress towards EU membership notes continued “prosecutions and convictions for expressions of non-violent opinion” and the persistence of torture.
Minority rights and judicial independence are also a cause for concern.
According to the draft commission report, Ankara fares better on its provisions for training Turkish judges and the creation of a citizen’s ombudsman.
But the country’s failure to allow port access to Cypriot ships, obligatory under EU customs rules, is condemned.
Turkey continues to refuse diplomatic relations with Nicosia and says the EU has failed to fulfil its promise to reduce the isolation of the ethnic Turks of northern Cyprus.
The European parliament’s rapporteur on Turkey said last week that he feared the Cyprus issue could derail talks before the end of the year.
“In the next few months we will face a very tough time over Cyprus,” Dutch MEP Camiel Eurlings told the Parliament Magazine.
“We said when we started talks that we wanted full implementation of the Ankara agreement by the end of 2006 but we have not seen that yet.”
Diplomats fear the issue may sink Turkey’s entry bid at a December summit of EU leaders.
EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn fears that support for Turkish EU entry has nose-dived in recent months because politicians have not given the issue the attention it merits.
“The EU is extremely important in Turkey, both as an anchor of democratic development and as a driver of economic growth,” he told reporters last week.
“But there is a certain tendency in Europe to underestimate the strategic importance of Turkey as a bridge between civilisations.”
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