Sarkozy  Stalls Turkey’s   EU  Entrance

BRUSSELS: In a new blow to Turkey's hopes of joining the European Union, an annual report has concluded that reforms there slowed in 2007 because of a constitutional crisis over the election of a president with an Islamic background.

With attention distracted by tensions between the governing AK Party and the military over the election of Abdullah Gul, Turkey did too little to root out corruption, modernize its judiciary, reduce the power of the military and increase freedom of expression.

The annual progress report compiled by the European Commission, is to be released next week as a new committee prepares to examine the future of the EU. The panel may try to determine where Europe's frontiers should lie and how much farther the bloc should expand.

Public opinion across the EU is hardening against Turkey's membership bid and the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, leads a group of countries opposed to full EU membership for Turkey, preferring a looser association with Ankara instead.

Sarkozy proposed the creation of the new committee, which is scheduled to be approved by EU heads of government next month. Turkey fears the panel will kill off their membership bid.

Eager to limit the damage to Turkish accession hopes, a draft of the commission's annual report stresses Turkey's strategic importance as a "unique interface between the West and the Muslim world," a diplomatic and military partner and an energy hub.

But it also makes clear that the implementation of reforms was "uneven" and "has slowed down since 2005." The number of people prosecuted for freedom of expression doubled from 2005 to 2006, corruption remains rife and Turkey was found to be in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights in 330 cases.

This year the military spoke out against Gul's candidacy for president, one of the central pillars of the secular Turkish state. The crisis prompted parliamentary elections that returned the AK Party to power, allowing Gul - whose wife wears a head scarf - to win the presidency through a parliamentary vote. Although the military "made statements beyond its remit," parliamentary elections were conducted properly, the draft report says.

"Turkey now needs to renew the momentum of political reforms," the document says. It calls for significant further efforts on freedom of expression, civilian control of the military, increased rights for non-Muslims, the fight against corruption and judicial reforms.

Charles Grant, director of the Center for European Reform in London, said the document comes at a difficult time for Turkey. "A number of governments that have been pro-Turkey are now backpedaling or, like Denmark, keeping their heads down and leaving it to Britain, Sweden and the commission to argue for Turkey" Grant said.

He added: "The best prospect for Turkey at the moment is just to keep going and hope that the climate in Europe changes, which it might do."

Eight of the 35 "chapters" for negotiations with Turkey are now frozen because of its refusal to open its ports to ships from Cyprus. There were fears that Sarkozy would block talks on all other issues but France has hinted that it will stop the opening of only four other chapters.

The commission's study underlines the amount of work needed to meet EU membership requirements. Although the document says that the outcome of the spring crisis "reaffirmed the primacy of the democratic process," it also notes that the military took positions on issues outside its remit. "Full civilian supervision of the military and parliamentary oversight of defense expenditures still need to be established," the paper says.

The document adds that there has been "little progress" in the fight against corruption, which it describes as "widespread."

The number of prosecutions of journalists, intellectuals and human rights activists for expressing nonviolent opinions is on the rise.

The number of people prosecuted almost doubled in 2006 from 2005 and there were further increases in 2007.

More than half of the cases were brought under the Turkish Penal Code and many of those under article 301, which makes it an offense to insult "Turkishness." Together with the murder of a Turkish-Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink, the prosecutions have helped create a climate of self-censorship, the draft document says. Dink was killed in Istanbul on Jan. 19. His views on the Ottoman Turkish massacres of Armenians in the era of World War I had angered Turkish nationalists.

The number of reported torture and ill-treatment cases has declined, though they still occur, especially before suspects are detained. Concerns remain about the independence and impartiality of the judiciary, the report says.

From October 2006 to October 2007 the European Court of Human Rights delivered 330 judgments finding that Turkey had violated at least one article of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The draft takes an even-handed approach on the Kurdish issue saying that Turkey made "no progress in the area of cultural rights." But it notes that the PKK separatist group is on the EU's terrorist list and talks of a "further deterioration of the situation" in terms of attacks by the PKK and other terrorist groups.

The final version of the document may make a plea to Turkey to avoid disproportionate retaliation.

The report, which covers the whole EU enlargement process, also says that Croatia might be able to join the bloc by the end of the decade if it speeds up the reform of its judiciary and the fight against corruption.

And it highlights concerns about the Balkans, including organized crime, ethnic tensions and corruption, arguing that the measures being taken are inadequate.

...n are inadequate.