The report on Turkey’s progress towards EU membership, which was voted in favour on 4 September 2006, said that Turkey had made insufficient progress in the areas of freedom of expression, minority rights, corruption and violence against women - a setback for Turkey’s EU membership bid. Foreign ministry spokesman Namik Tan said “we think that some elements in the report are written with political motives and without realism and are not in accordance with the European Parliament’s credibility and seriousness”.
The report comes at a time when not only the EU is increasingly suffering from “enlargement fatigue”, but also Turkey’s public is more and more tired of the negotiation process. A recent Eurobarometer showed that only 44% of Turks thought EU membership would be a good thing, compared to 66% in spring 2005. A survey by the German Marshall Fund of the US, published in June, confirmed this tendency. Turkish politicians are increasingly making use of this sentiment, especially with a view to the upcoming parliamentary elections in 2007.
Add to this a report by Friends of Europe, published on 4 September 2006, which predicts a major crisis for the accession negotiations this autumn. The report outlines four different possible outcomes of the talks: "full steam ahead", "minor derailment", "into a siding" and "major train crash". The report says "on current trends, "into a siding" or even the "major train crash" scenarios appear most likely. As a consequence of the eventual failure of Turkey to open its ports and airports to Greek Cypriot ships and planes from the Republic of Cyprus, the report warns "talks could be suspended by the end of the year, possibly never to start again".
