Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-01-20-Speech-3-366"
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"en.20100120.18.3-366"2
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"Madam President, I am glad to say my last word on Turkey.
The first and foremost of them concerns citizens’ rights and fundamental freedoms. Turkey’s record on freedom of expression is not in line with EU standards. Many authors and journalists are still facing prosecution and conviction for their work. It is now high time for Turkey to adopt the necessary legal reforms so that this problem will belong to Turkey’s past and not to its future. That is fundamental for any open and democratic society and it is fundamental also to further discuss such sensitive issues as the Armenian issue, the Kurdish question or the Cyprus problem.
Secondly, the past year has seen important developments concerning civil/military relations. The ongoing Ergenekon investigation is crucial to the democratisation efforts in Turkey, and indeed, Turkish citizens deserve to see this investigation pursued to the end, and they rightfully expect all necessary precautions to be taken to ensure a fair trial for all defendants.
Thirdly, last but not least, genuine democracy cannot be achieved if half of the population – women – are grossly underrepresented in national and local politics. Turkish women’s NGOs are relentless in their efforts to promote this agenda, as they should be, and we are their allies. The establishment of a specific Commission on Gender Equality is an important step which I hope will help greatly to enhance political representation of women at all levels in Turkish society.
To sum up, Turkey’s EU accession process can be a long and sometimes winding road, but it is essential not to lose sight of the basic goal of the democratic transformation of the country. That is in the fundamental interests not only of Turkey but also of the European Union, and that is best achieved by being both fair and firm with Turkey at the same time, which maintains our credibility and the power of conditionality in driving reforms for fundamental freedoms in Turkey. In this major effort, I continue to count on your strong support. That is essential for this project to succeed in the end.
I want to thank you for a very substantive and responsible debate this evening. Actually, I said my farewell concerning Turkey to you already in December or November. I will not repeat it now. I hope that I do not have to say any further farewells as regards Turkey in this Chamber and that we can move on and start tackling the major economic and other challenges of the European Union.
I also want to use this opportunity to thank the Spanish Presidency and Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero for launching the Alliance of Civilisations, which is a very important initiative, and I can say that I am a volunteer to join that alliance. It is very important also for EU-Turkey relations.
Today’s debate has focused largely on the party closure and rightly so. It is very important that Turkey reform its legislation and the whole constitutional legal framework of political parties in line with the recommendations of the Venice Commission.
Mr van Baalen and Mr Schmidt raised the issue of the Court of Auditors’ recent report on Turkey. I can say that our conclusion in the Commission, in DG Enlargement, concurs with the report and its conclusions concerning how to make our financial assistance more strategic, multiannual and more clearly linked to the needs stemming from the political reform agenda in our countries, in this case, in Turkey.
Work is now under way to this end, including a completely new orientation for preparing our planning documents on a multiannual basis and moving from project- to sector-based programming. This new approach also comprises a stronger emphasis on sectoral strategies being developed by the beneficiary countries themselves, which ultimately should ease joint identification of policy priorities between the Commission and the Turkish authorities.
I will be glad to provide you with a longer and deeper written response on this matter if you send me a letter shortly so that I can still do it during the term of the present Commission.
I think it is important, apart from party closures, to discuss the democratic transformation more broadly. That is what you have done this evening and I just want to make three points briefly, which, in my view, are the most important next steps.
We have seen tremendous democratic transformation in Turkey in the past five years. It is a very different country today compared to what it was, say, five years ago. But, of course, the glass is not yet full, and there are many important reforms that still need to be implemented in Turkey."@en1
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