Agence France Presse — English
September 28, 2006 Thursday 9:28 AM GMT
EU enlargement chief to visit Turkey ahead of key report
ANKARA, Sept 28 2006
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn is scheduled to visit Turkey
next week ahead of a crucial report on the country’s struggling
membership bid, officials said Thursday.
Ankara has faced increasing warnings that its bid may be derailed,
only a year after accession talks started, if it fails to ensure
freedom of speech and grant trade privileges to EU member Cyprus
under a customs union accord with the bloc.
Rehn, who will arrive here late Monday, is expected to have talks
with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Foreign Minister Abdullah
Gul, Turkey’s chief EU negotiator, Economy Minister Ali Babacan, and
Justice Minister Cemil Cicek on Tuesday and Wednesday, a spokeswoman
for the EU Commission told AFP.
He is also expected to visit the Turkish parliament, address a
conference on union rights organized by one of Turkey’s biggest trade
unions, Turk-Is, and make a speech at Ankara’s Middle East Technical
University, she said.
The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, will issue on
November 8 a report on Turkey’s progress towards membership, which is
widely expected to be critical.
"The momentum for reform has slowed down in Turkey in the past year,"
Rehn said Tuesday.
Last week, Brussels slammed Ankara for failing to ensure free speech
after best-selling novelist Elif Shafak went on trial for insulting
the Turkish nation in a book about the massacres of Armenians under
the Ottoman Empire.
Even though Shafak was swiftly acquitted, the European Commission
said "a significant threat to freedom of expression" remains in
Turkish law and urged amendments in penal code articles that have
landed a string of intellectuals in court.
In another major sticking point, Ankara insists that its sea and air
ports will remain closed to Greek Cypriot use unless Brussels
delivers on promises to ease trade restrictions imposed on the
breakaway Turkish Cypriots in the north of the divided island.
The dispute stems from Ankara’s refusal to endorse the Greek Cypriot
administration in the south, which is internationally recognized as
the government of the Republic of Cyprus.
Babacan said earlier this month that the EU was making "serious
efforts" to find a formula for a "provisional or partial" solution to
the row.