THE HAGUE (CIHAN) - Turkish parliament speaker Bülent Arinc said on Sunday in the Hague the European Union appreciated the EU-inspired reforms adopted by the Turkish government to flat out the EU membership process.
The Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) Speaker Bülent Arinc held a press conference on Sunday to evaluate his visit to the Netherlands. Bulent Arinc who attended the EU Parliaments Speakers Conference, said that EU officials had voiced their contentment with Turkey's effort to meet the Copenhagen criteria and Turkey's determination to implement the EU reforms.
The speaker Arinc told the press conference Turkey has fulfilled the EU political criteria for the EU membership. "Turkey is determinate to put the legislated reforms into practice.
"We are hoping the decision to open accession talks with Turkey would be taken in the December summit. We passed through a flurry of harmonization packages in second half of 2003 and in 2004. We winded up the process in last two years, despite fact that Turkey has been aspiring to enter EU for 40 years," TGNA Speaker said.
EU leaders are due to meet in December to decide whether Turkey, a candidate country since 1999, has made enough progress on human rights and political freedoms for the initiation of the long-delayed accession talks with the EU.
The EU Commission is expected to issue its progress report on Turkey in October. The report will be the basis for the EU leaders' decision in December on whether to open accession talks with Turkey or not. Recent signals from the EU have underlined that the actual implementation of EU reforms in Turkey will be crucial.
The European Union pledges to open accession talks with Turkey without delay if Turkey fulfills the Copenhagen political criteria, the final joint declaration of last month's Brussels EU leaders' summit stated.
Parliament speaker acknowledged that there were opponent voices against the Turkey's EU membership, referring to the Christian Democratic in Germany and other nationalist and conservative parties in certain EU members including France and Austria. "They openly showed their position toward to Turkey's EU membership. However, the general tendency shows that most of Europeans find Turkey successful in this process."
Arinc added that Turkey with its Muslim population could offer positive effect on the social problems in the Euopean Union when she enters into European Union.
The TGNA Arinc condemned the terrorism and terror attack that killed 3 people in eastern Turkish city of Van last week.