By Sebastian Alison
BRUSSELS, Nov 9 (Reuters) – The European Commission awarded candidate nation Turkey the coveted status of a “functioning market economy” for the first time on Wednesday but warned that stronger action was required to stamp out torture.
A report issued by the European Union executive said Turkey could be regarded as a functioning market economy “as long as it firmly maintains its recent stabilisation and reform achievements”.
Market economy status should ease the start of talks on economic aspects of Turkey’s path to EU accession, seen as a long-term process expected to take a decade or more, and could boost financial market confidence and attract investment.
However, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said the pace of political reform had slowed since the bloc decided in December to open membership talks with Ankara. Cases of torture continued to be reported, non-Muslim religious minorities still had problems, and violence against women was a serious concern.
“We expect Turkey will ensure implementation of measures adopted in the context of a zero tolerance policy on torture,” he told a news conference.
Rehn highlighted the need for Turkey to bring its laws on freedom of expression in line with EU standards and to address problems of people prosecuted or convicted for their views. “This is an obvious reference to the case of the novelist Orhan Pamuk, who is prosecuted for the expression of non-violent opinion,” he said. “This is a very important priority for Turkey to tackle in the short term.”
He was referring to Turkey’s most famous novelist, to be tried next month for allegedly insulting the state with comments on Turkey’s role in killings of Armenians and Kurds.
KURDISH CONCERNS
Ankara, which has been seeking EU membership for over 40 years, finally began entry talks on Oct. 3, despite last-minute objections from Austria and widespread public misgivings over accepting such a populous, poor, overwhelmingly Muslim nation.
Rehn said that overall, Turkey continued to meet the EU’s stringent political conditions for accession negotiations.
But the EU strategy paper raised concerns over the treatment of Turkey’s large Kurdish minority. Kurds face discrimination in many fields, especially the use of their language and culture.
“No local broadcasting in Kurdish has yet been authorised, Kurdish language courses have been closed down and politicians continue to be convicted for using the Kurdish language in certain contexts,” the report said.
Turkey’s economy has been boosted by its acceptance as a candidate country, and the Commission said it was in improving shape as it moved closer to the bloc.
“Turkey should be able to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union in the medium term, provided that it firmly maintains its stabilisation policy and takes further decisive steps towards structural reforms.”
Turkish political analyst Can Baydarol of Istanbul’s Bilgi University said that while the comments on education in Kurdish would spark heated debate, the positive news in the report outweighed the criticism and should boost business confidence.
“It has positive aspects, for example Turkey having a functioning market economy is a message to European investors. The Commission is telling them to go ahead and invest in Turkey,” he said.
Rehn added that Turkey should open its ports to Cypriot shipping, saying it had to implement this key membership demand.
He also noted that Turkish membership would be a challenge to the EU, both in selling its merits to a frequently sceptical public and in its ability to integrate the huge country.
“There is no hiding that Turkey, with its size of 71 million people and with its economic development which is behind the others in the European Union, is a major challenge also in terms the absorption capacity of the European Union.”
(Additional reporting by Selcuk Gokoluk in Ankara, Marie-Louise Moller and Paul Taylor in Brussels)
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