Türkiye placed second among potential European Union member states in the World Economic Forum's Lisbon Review 2006, scoring 3.92 points and trailing only Croatia, which topped the group with 3.93 points.
The Lisbon Review measures EU members, candidate countries, and accession states across dimensions including innovation, financial services, telecommunications, enterprise conditions, social inclusion, and sustainable development. Its underlying goal is to help EU nations build the world's most competitive knowledge-based economy by 2010.
Despite securing confirmed EU membership, Romania and Bulgaria ranked below Türkiye in the assessment. Romania finished third with 3.59 points and Bulgaria fourth with 3.31 points. Macedonia came fifth at 3.28 points, while Serbia and Montenegro placed last among the six potential member states with 3.14 points.
The 2006 review covered all 25 EU member countries at the time, alongside the six accession and candidate nations, allowing direct comparison of each country's performance against the others and against the EU average.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in December 2006, in its own words.