Brussels, 01/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - On 30 September, Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Füle described as “interesting” the speech the same day by Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan - a speech in which Erdogan announced a “democratic package” of reforms. Füle added that the EU was examining the text in depth and was waiting for it to be translated into action.
Stating that the EU is due to conduct an in-depth study of the Turkish proposals, Füle's spokesperson, Peter Stano, said that “the measures that have been announced would enable progress to be made on many important issues” like the use of languages other than Turkish in many bodies, the freedom of association and religion, the issue of the raised threshold for representation at the parliament, or the funding of political parties. “We are waiting for progress on these issues”, said Stano, who hailed the reference in the Turkish reforms to the guiding role of European legislation on the acquis communautaire. Expecting the inclusion and commitment of the opposition in implementing the package, Stano warned that the EU was going “to follow the implementation of the package closely, and its transposition into legislation and real action”. He stated that Turkey's progress report, which will be published on 16 October, will take this package into account.
The European Parliament's rapporteur on Turkey, Ria Oomen-Ruijten (EPP, Netherlands) believed that at first sight “this package contains a number of positive proposals with regard to the position of minorities and the reform of the electoral system”. She said she was going to follow closely the way in which the measures are debated, adopted and implemented. Oomen-Ruijten underlined that the package leaves unanswered the challenges concerning freedom of expression and freedom of the media. Just like Erdogan, Oomen-Ruijten reiterated that the package would not alone meet the challenges in Turkey and that further reforms are therefore important.
The leader of the European Parliament's S&D Group, Hannes Swoboda, welcomed Erdogan's statements “with caution”, stressing that the package “contains some crucial points on minority rights, and parliamentary representation and pluralism which are important both practically and symbolically”. “But the proof of the pudding is in the eating”, he added, regretting that no timetable was provided. Swoboda added that the support and cooperation of several parties are needed to achieve the reforms. He also said that more should be done for minority rights, press freedom and women's rights.
Welcoming the plan for reform which is “directed towards strengthening the democratic bedrock and fundamental rights in Turkey”, Hélène Flautre (Greens/EFA, France) said that these announcements must “now be made concrete in the legislative process and in no way substitute the necessary reform of the constitution”. Courageous progress on education in the Kurdish language in private schools “must be welcomed”, Flautre said. In her opinion, “the most promising message is perhaps the one (…) recalling that the acquis communautaire is a reference which guides the current reforms”. She called on the EU to encourage this progress by relaunching the accession negotiations, including Chapter 23 on justice and fundamental rights - a chapter currently blocked by Cyprus (our translation). (CG/transl.fl)