Today European Commission issued its next-in-series Progress report on Turkey covering the period from October 2011 to September 2012. The report covers Turkey’s progress in terms of harmonization of its domestic constitution with EU acquis (EU Law). Recall that each acceding state needs to harmonize its legislation with EU law (33 chapters related to various aspects) so that after harmonization completion of accession is fulfilled. Turkey has so far opened negotiations on opened on 13 chapters.
Classified as hardest-hitting report to date on the aspirant member state by the Financial Times, the report highlighted “successful launch of the positive agenda to support and to complement the accession negotiations” and welcomed “Turkey’s work on a new Constitution via a participatory process”. However, the report contains serious concern regarding “Turkey’s lack of substantial progress towards fully meeting the political criteria; the situation regarding the respect for fundamental rights continues to be a source of serious preoccupation”.
In terms of political criteria met by Turkey, EU Progress report underlined the gaps existing in freedom of opinion and freedom of media in particular. “While debates continue on topics perceived as sensitive (such as the Armenian issue or the role of the military) restrictions on freedom of the media in practice and numerous court cases against writers and journalists remain issues of serious concern. Self-censorship is widespread”, noted the report. Political life in the country has been characterized as “limited dialogue and frequent tensions”. In terms of democracy challenges the report noted Turkey’s low progress concerning the Kurdish open-up which was to address Kurdish problems publically. Touching upon the 301 Article related to Genocide denial EU Commission noted that “Though very few cases have been initiated on the basis of Article 301 of the Turkish Criminal Code, implementation of two ECtHR judgments on Article 301 are pending”. Related to the right of training the clergy the report stated that “The Armenian Patriarchate’s proposal to open a university department for the Armenian language and clergy remained pending for a fifth year.”
