Parliament report puts EU-Turkey relations to the test

The Finnish presidency noted that there has been much achieved, but insisted that more “tangible results were needed”. Minister for European Affairs Paula Lehtomäki said that Turkey needs to give new impetus to the pace of the political reform and vigorously pursue the reform process. Full and effective implementation of the reforms is of utmost importance for Turkey to ensure the irreversibility and sustainability of the changes.

Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn also regretted the “lack of progress in reforms”. He underlined that negotiations were "an open process" with no automatic guarantees. "The integration of Turkey would be of mutual benefit," he said, adding "the EU needs a prosperous and stable Turkey".

Rapporteur Camiel Eurlings (EPP-ED) said its basic conclusion was that the EP regretted the "slowdown in reforms" in Turkey, although he did compliment the Turkish government on its 9th reform package.

Christian Democrat MEP Elmar Brok (EPP-ED) stressed the issues of human rights, minority rights, freedom of religion and of expression. These, he said, were "preconditions" for EU membership. So far it had not even implemented the Ankara Protocol. He also emphasised that the financial aspects of the negotiations must be dealt with and that the EU had "no financial leeway" under the Financial Perspective.

Liberal Andrew Duff (ALDE) stressed that EP's role was "to promote parliamentary democracy in Turkey". This meant encouraging Turkey's modernisation not putting up "spurious blocks" to the process. If there were a "train crash" in Cyprus, there would be two trains involved: one carrying "Turkey's efforts to create a viable reform of European Islam, where the prophet meets the Enlightenment", the other carrying Europe's efforts to develop a strong common foreign and defence policy, to which Turkey could make "an extraordinary contribution".

Joost Lagendijk (Greens) said there was a big problem with the paragraphs in which, following amendments instigated by lobby groups, recognition of the Armenian genocide by Turkey was described as a precondition for Turkey to join. He said the parliament must "support people in Turkey who are fighting for the same things as us".

The Turkish ARI Movement warned that this development could weaken Turkish enthusiasm and ambitions in the reform process.