Brussels, 20/09/2006 (Agence Europe) - The draft Eurlings report on Turkey, which the European Parliament foreign affairs committee approved by a large majority on 4 September, is “too harsh, not balanced and not fair” and will have to be amended during the debate and vote in plenary session next week in Strasbourg, Green MEPs Joost Lagendijk (Netherlands) and Cem Özdemir (Germany) told press on 20 September (see EUROPE 9258). The EP has to be critical towards Ankara, but adoption of the current version of the text would be highly “counter-productive” because it would wipe out the European Parliament's credibility and influence on the reform process underway in Turkey, the two MEPs warned. “Even pro-European circles in Turkey are telling us that this report, in its current form, is too harsh because, on certain points, it goes far beyond the position which the Parliament has taken until now,” said Mr Lagendijk, who is chairman of the delegation to the EU-Turkey joint parliamentary committee. He was involved in talks in Istanbul at the weekend and will attend the trial of novelist Elif Shafak, following the publication this latter's book on the massacres of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire. The EP's aim must be to produce a report which has a positive effect on the reforms in Turkey, stressed Mr Lagendijk. Mr Özdemir drew attention to two issues in the foreign affairs committee report which seemed particularly “unjust” to him and which, he felt, had to be amended:
Cyprus. The text approved by the Parliamentary committee points out that recognition of all Member States, including Cyprus, is a “necessary component” of Turkey's accession process. It calls on Turkey to take concrete measures as quickly as possible to regularise relations with the Republic of Cyprus. Turkey also had to maintain a “constructive attitude” to the Cypriot question to be able to find a complete and acceptable solution to the problem of the division of the island “within the UN framework”. For Mr Özdemir, this simple reference to the United Nations is “not acceptable”: an explicit reference to the reunification plan put forward by Kofi Annan, he felt, was necessary. Next week, then, he will propose an amendment emphasising that the resolution of the Cyprus problem must be “based on the previous work of the UN”. A further amendment that Mr Lagendijk and Mr Özdemir intend to table next week in the plenary session says that the EU “must deliver on its promise to end the isolation of the Turkish Cypriot Community”. Alongside these efforts from the EU, pressure must be put on Turkey for it to agree to implement the Protocol on the extension of the EU-Turkey Customs Union to Cyprus. “There is no doubt that Ankara has this legal obligation, but the EU also has the political obligation to put an end to the isolation of Cyprus,” they said. That the Commission has decided to postpone publication of its regular report on Turkey from 24 October until 8 November (see EUROPE 9268) could indicate that the on-going talks between the Finnish Presidency, Commissioner Olli Rehn's staff (enlargement) and the Turkish government with a view to solving the problem over the extension of the Customs Union is on the right track, the MEPs said. The additional time before 8 November should also allow the Turkish government to make a significant gesture, particularly on abolition the infamous Article 301 of the penal code on denigrating national identity, which is regularly used by Ankara against journalists and writers. “Article 301 must be included in the package of democratic reforms” being undertaken by the Turkish government, the two said.
Armenian genocide. It is clear that Turkey has to agree to dialogue on its history, including with regard to the Armenians, but the EP cannot go as far as to state that “recognition of the Armenian genocide is a pre-condition for accession”, as the Parliamentary committee had done, said Mr Özdemir, going on to say that making such recognition an accession criterion had never been the policy either of the EU, or of the Council or of the Commission or even of the EP. In addition, such a statement in a Parliament report would further complicate the dialogue in Turkey on this issue, he felt. Rapporteur Camiel Eurlings (EPP-ED, Netherlands), himself opposed to this form of words, had been surprised, it would appear, of the adoption, during the committee vote, of several draft amendments going far beyond the initial text and introducing the term “pre-condition for accession”. “Mr Eurlings has to stick to his initial opinion” and ensure that, next week, most MEPs vote for the removal of this passage, stressed Mr Lagendijk.
If the report is not amended on these two points, the Greens/EFA group will vote against the report or will abstain, warned Mr Lagendijk and Mr Özdemir.