ANKARA - Turkey-European Union (EU) Association said on Friday that the Regular Report on progress towards accession by Turkey brought a double standard for Turkey.
A statement of the association said that this attitude would be an important tool for propaganda of political parties that were against the EU.
The statement noted that the report did not set any date for opening of full membership negotiations with Turkey and that the Commission took a further step and proposed the revision of the Accession Partnership Document.
''This new proposal is nothing but delaying opening of negotiations to an uncertain date,'' the statement said.
The statement pointed out that the EU officials were bewildered about the rapid fulfillment of requirements by Turkey.
The progress reports prepared by the Commission about the countries which were given negotiation calendars in 1997 Luxembourg and 1999 Helsinki summits included more deficiencies than Turkey had today, the statement said.
The statement noted that the European Commission set dates for those candidate countries despite all those deficiencies and said, ''to this end, when compared with Turkey, we can talk about existence of a serious double standard.''
Some important newspapers in Europe also criticized the attitude of the Commission, the statement pointed out.
The statement said, ''in fact, if the EU really had wanted to see Turkey as a full member, it would have assumed an opposite attitude and strengthened position of political parties defending this process prior to the elections.''
Turkey was not at all behind Romania and Bulgaria with its current geopolitical, economic and social potential, the statement noted.
The statement said that even the Customs Union could be questioned unless Turkey was presented a certain timetable.
''EU cannot have any luxury to repeat its mistake in 1997 Luxembourg Summit by excluding Turkey,'' the statement noted.
The statement expressed belief that the EU would give a negotiation date for Turkey for 2003 at the Copenhagen Summit.