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.