EC to continue troubled Turkey accession talks as compromise sought

THE European Commission is expected to pull back from the brink of partially breaking off accession negotiations with Turkey when it issues its annual progress report today.

Instead, it is likely to opt to give Turkey another five weeks to resolve problems acknowledging Cyprus by opening up its ports to its ships and scrapping a law that makes denigrating “Turkishness” a crime.

Negotiations on Turkey’s membership of the EU began last January but have been mired in controversy since, largely due to the Cypriot issue. The island is divided into the Greek half that is an EU member and the northern part which is now occupied by Turkey.

There has been growing resistance to Turkey joining the EU while the Turks are now less enthusiastic to join with support dropping to less than half in recent weeks, according to reports.

Commissioners from France, Cyprus and Greece have been pushing for a highly critical report, with a threat to stop negotiations on a number of areas but this is being resisted by the commissioner in charge of enlargement, Olli Rehn.

Instead the report is expected to leave the final judgement until the summit of EU leaders in Brussels in mid-December.

If there are no signs of change then, the EC “will make relevant recommendations ahead of the December European Council”.

Mr Rehn has been particularly concerned about the Turkish law, article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, that he believes limits free speech and has seen writers including Turkey’s Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk prosecuted for insulting “Turkishness”.

Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday his government was open to proposals on how to change this law.

The EC report is expected to criticise shortcomings in the rights of minorities, civilian control over the military and torture of suspects. It will praise economic reforms, training of judges and the ombudsman for citizens’ complaints.