Ankara to redouble efforts to join EU

[Marcus Marulus]

Ankara to redouble efforts to join EU

By David O’Byrne in Istanbul

Published: August 31 2007 18:52 | Last updated: August 31 2007 18:52


Turkey’s prime minister on Friday announced on Friday that his government would redouble efforts to steer the country into the European Union at a time when some EU states have voiced reservations about whether Ankara should ever be allowed to succeed.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose Justice and Development party was re-elected to a second term in July, unveiled a new government programme that placed heavy emphasis on continued reforms to comply with conditions for EU accession, on which negotiations began in late 2004.

Leading opposition to the strategic Nato ally’s ambitions of EU membership, Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, has sought to limit negotiations with the predominantly Muslim country.

Outlining his party’s programme Mr Erdogan detailed plans for a new constitution, aimed at boosting individual freedoms. He said that his government would re-submit to parliament a programme of legislative changes requested by the EU, which were blocked by outgoing President Ahmet Necdet Sezer.

Mr Sezer was replaced as head of state earlier this week by Mr Erdogan’s close colleague, Abdullah Gul, the pro-EU foreign minister. This should make a formality the passage of legislation previously perceived as controversial.

Reiterating his administration’s zero tolerance of torture and human rights abuses, Mr Erdogan was less forthright on possible plans to abolish the controversial article 301 of the Turkish penal code whose removal has been demanded by the EU. This has been used by prosecutors acting independently of the government to prosecute prominent writers such as Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel Prize winner.

At the same time Mr Erdogan emphasised his administration’s close working relationship with the EU in areas ranging from combating terrorism to promoting pan-European security of energy supplies. He stressed his commitment to realising the transit of Caspian Sea gas reserves to Europe via Turkey.

Mr Erdogan said Turkey’s goal of EU membership had served to strengthen the economy, and noted how his administration had succeeded in reducing inflation to single figures for the first time in nearly three decades.
“We will continue with our policies aimed at reducing inflation and promoting permanent price stability,” he said. There would be no change in his government’s commitment to budgetary discipline, but it remained committed to growth.

Growth has been strong in recent years and exports have more than doubled from $36bn in 2002 to $97bn (€71bn, £48bn) over the past year.
In order to pursue growth which has been as high as 7 per cent and to help combat increasing competition from far eastern producers, Mr Erdogan announced a long-awaited 5 per cent cut in employers’ social security contributions together with other cuts in company taxes.
He expected such measures would also help reduce unemployment from its current level of 9.9 per cent.

● Turkey’s trade deficit hit a record in July with a higher-than-expected 32 per cent year-on-year surge which knocked the lira and raised concerns about an already large current account gap, Reuters reports from Istanbul.


Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007

Hopefully, the evil EU will be dismantled, so that all these efforts will in the end prove to have been in vain...