BY FAIK OZTRAK
MILLIYET- The closer the date for the European Union Commission to issue its Turkey report gets, the more heated discussions on our country’s membership grow. The EU is to decide whether or not to set a date for the beginning of Turkey’s membership negotiations in line with the commission’s fall report. The commission will issue its report after evaluating the reform packages that our Parliament recently passed in order to fulfill the Copenhagen criteria.
The Copenhagen criteria require EU candidate countries to establish a stable institutional structure safeguarding democracy as well as human and minority rights plus an effective market economy capable of competing with the EU’s own economic forces. The decision on Turkey’s status will first depend on the former group, namely the political criteria.
In 1997, the EU Commission adopted a no-concessions attitude with its strict enlargement policy and decided to start membership talks with only five candidate countries out of 10. But in 2000 the commission seemed to pursue a more flexible policy, especially in the cases of Bulgaria and Romania. Therefore, we all expect it to be more flexible with Turkey.
However, making a decision on Turkey will be difficult for the EU Commission, as we all know that the old continent has certain sensitivities about our country. Thus, EU officials have sometimes made interesting and even shocking statements on the issue. We should expect more such statements in the future, something which will jolt our economy. Our government has to develop a strong public relations strategy to help avoid possible fluctuations in the financial markets. Every possible problem in Turkey’s negotiations will have negative repercussions on our economy, destabilizing the markets, which is why both the EU and our government must be careful in their decisions. An unstable Turkish economy would be detrimental not only to us but also to the EU. The member states must avoid inventing new criteria for Turkey’s membership bid, if they really want our country to adopt itself to the Union’s conditions as soon as possible.