Financial Times: EBRD Could Help Ankara In Its Integration With EU

LONDON - The Financial Times in Britain has written that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) could help Ankara in its integration with the EU.
The article said, "the EU needs all the help it can get in engaging with Turkey. With Ankara`s bid for EU membership running into political disenchantment both in Turkey and in the Union, it may fall to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to give the wheel of progress a modest push forward."
"With strong EU backing, the EBRD agreed last week to start examining plans to extend its operations to Turkey. A final decision will not come before October, but the signs are that it will be positive," it said.
"Ankara, which is a bank member but not a country of operation, has long sought access to the EBRD`s money and skills. But it was blocked by the United States which wanted the bank, set up to aid the ex-Communist states, to stick to its last. The United States argued that with the World Bank active around the globe there was no need for another general development bank. Faced with the strength of feeling in the EU, which controls 60 per cent of the vote at the EBRD, Washington appears ready to back down," it said.
The Financial Times said, "the west must keep engagement with Turkey among its top priorities. It needs to encourage the development of a modern Muslim democracy in Turkey for the good of the country, Europe and the wider Middle East. EU leaders must work harder to counter public opposition towards Turkey`s membership of the union. Turkish leaders must not allow popular Islamist pressures to stop them modernising their country."
"The EBRD cannot play a decisive role in western-Turkish relations. But, given the EU`s difficulties over enlargement, the bank can contribute something and something is better than nothing. In particular, it can encourage small business - the bedrock of any democracy," the Financial Times added.
(UK-MS)