THE European Commission has serious concerns about Turkey’s statements and its threats against the Cypriot EU presidency, Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule said yesterday.
Speaking at a news conference in Brussels, where he announced the Commission’s Enlargement Package for 2012, Fule said: “The Commission repeats its serious concerns about Turkey's statements and threats about the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union and calls on Turkey to fully respect the role of the Presidency of the Council”.
He described Turkey as a key country for the European Union considering its dynamic economy, strategic location and important regional role. “It is in our interest and Turkey's interest that accession negotiations regain their momentum”, he said.
Fule said the Commission recommended that work resume on negotiating chapters, interrupted in recent years because of a lack of consensus amongst member states. Fule was referring to the chapters which Cyprus and France have unilaterally frozen.
Replying to questions, Fule said the EU and Turkey had the power to put the accession negotiations back on track so that the EU continued to be a benchmark on Turkey’s reforms.
The Commission, in its report on Turkey said yesterday that progress towards the normalisation of Ankara’s relations with Cyprus was urgent and could provide new momentum to Turkey’s accession negotiations.
It stressed that concerns were growing regarding Turkey's lack of substantial progress towards fully meeting the political criteria, and the situation regarding fundamental rights on the ground remained a serious concern”.
“Full implementation of the obligations under the Customs Union and progress towards normalisation of relations with Cyprus are urgent and could provide new momentum to accession negotiations,” the Commission said. Turkey does not recognise the current Cyprus EU presidency.
"The situation regarding the respect of fundamental rights on the ground continues to be the source of serious preoccupation," the Commission said.
Rights to liberty, security, fair trial and freedom of expression, assembly and association were of particular concern. As a consequence of government policies, it said, self-censorship by the media was increasingly widespread.
Turkey's EU Minister Egemen Bagis said the report had failed to be objective, ignored the expansion of rights for religious minorities and had criticised the judiciary too sweepingly.
"We are extremely disappointed with this year's EU progress report, especially the part on political criteria," he said.
The Commission criticised Ankara for poor cooperation with the EU in the second half of this year, as Cyprus has held the rotating presidency.
Fule said “the very next day that Turkey delivers on its commitment stemming from the Ankara Protocol the Commission would propose to the member states to make available the eight chapters which are frozen by consensual decision of the member states.
He furthermore said that Turkey's active support for the Positive Agenda and its European perspective remained essential and welcomed the commitment of the Turkish government to swiftly present the fourth judicial reform package which should address all the core issues which are presently affecting the exercise of freedom of expression in practice.
Accession negotiations with Turkey began in October 2005. Turkey has so far managed to open 13 of the 34 chapters. Only one chapter has opened and closed, the chapter on science.
In December 2006, due to the Turkish failure to apply to Cyprus the Additional Protocol to the Ankara Agreement, the European Council decided that eight relevant chapters would not be opened and no chapter would be provisionally closed until Turkey had fulfilled its commitment.
The eight chapters are: Free Movement of Goods, Right of Establishment and Freedom to Provide Services, Financial Services, Agriculture and Rural Development, Fisheries, Transport Policy, Customs Union and External Relations.
In addition, France has frozen five other chapters, while Cyprus froze in December 2009 six other chapters.
The last time that a negotiating chapter opened was during the Spanish EU presidency in June 2010.
Three more chapters could open but the Commission believes they are too difficult for the current stage of negotiations, while Turkey believes that the cost of opening them is not affordable for now.