"Mr. President,

Honorable Members of the European Parliament,

I would like to take the opportunity offered today with the adoption of the Oostlander report, to talk about EU-Turkey relations and the developments of the accession strategy for Turkey.

Turkey has been an important partner of the Union with whom we have maintained contractual relations for the longest time, since 1963. The turning point in EU-Turkey relations has been the Helsinki European Council; Turkey was recognized as “a candidate State destined to join the Union on the basis of the same criteria as applied to the other candidate States”. At Helsinki, a preaccession strategy was adopted to help Turkey on its way to membership, including enhanced political dialogue, preaccession assistance and a process of legislative scrutiny. The cornerstone of this preaccession strategy has been an Accession Partnership, adopted in March 2001 with principles, priorities and intermediate objectives in order for Turkey to fulfill the Copenhagen criteria. Subsequent European Councils have recognized progress achieved by Turkey to that end and have encouraged her to proceed on the path to further reforms. In this respect, it is crucial to point out that both legislative adjustment and effective implementation are equally important elements. The Commission has, on its part, been very clear in underlining this point mainly in its yearly Regular Reports which constitute a major tool to assess progress made by candidate countries.

Recently, we witnessed some important domestic developments in Turkey. A new government with a clear popular mandate is in office. The new leader Mr. Erdogan has declared in clear terms that he intends to pursue and enhance the reform process in order for Turkey to meet the Copenhagen criteria. Recent polls have also indicated that this is an objective shared by a considerable majority of the public opinion in Turkey.

At the Copenhagen European Council, the Union itself acknowledged the determination of the new Turkish government to take further steps on the path of reform and urged it in particular to address swiftly all remaining shortcomings in the field of the political criteria, not only with regard to legislation but also in particular with regard to implementation. In this respect, the Union encouraged Turkey to pursue energetically its reform process. If the European Council in December 2004, on the basis of a report and a recommendation from the Commission, decides that Turkey fulfils the Copenhagen political criteria, the European Union will open accession negotiations with Turkey without delay. This has been a momentous decision for the future of EU-Turkey relations. We have come a long way towards setting a date for the date of opening of accession negotiations. We really hope that this prospect will be a catalyst to encourage Turkey to adopt and implement all necessary reforms.

During the Greek Presidency we have worked hard to put in place the elements of the accession strategy as decided in Copenhagen. The revised Accession Partnership which was adopted at the April 2003 GAERC is of primary importance in helping Turkey address the main issues towards fulfilling the political criteria. A well-targeted revised National Program for the Adoption of the Acquis is expected to be the necessary response by Turkey to this new Accession Partnership. Moreover, we have conducted three meetings of political dialogue, one at ministerial level, which have given us the opportunity to tell Turkey exactly what is expected of them till the end of 2004. Another two meetings were held by Presidency and Commission in order to specifically check on progress towards meeting the Copenhagen political criteria. The Association Council itself met at ministerial level last April and assessed progress both on the preaccession track and in the framework of the contractual relationship.

At this point, I would like to take the opportunity and be more specific about the major points we expect Turkey to take care of on its way to the 2004 evaluation. Our guide is definitely the newly adopted revised Accession Partnership. This is in no way to prejudge either the Commission’s  evaluation in this year’s Progress Report or to put any priorities on the list of the European Council ahead of its decision on the same matter in 2004.

This Accession Partnership has benefited from a valuable experience of two years in helping Turkey initiate political reforms. This means that lessons learnt during these years were well taken into consideration both by the Commission in tabling its proposal and by the Council in debating and finally adopting it slightly modified. Let me say at the outset that, in our understanding, there are two key issues in promoting a meaningful candidate status for Turkey; firstly, getting democracy to function in the country without the hurdles of the past and, secondly, transforming the will of the Turkish people, as expressed in a series of reform packages passed or to be passed by its elected representatives, into a real administrative and judicial practice. In both issues, the main state apparatus has to transform itself in order to reflect the institutional decisions and engagements. This is the main point one has to consider when talking about Turkey meeting the political criteria.

Civilian control of the military is therefore a main area that Turkey will need to effectively address. This goes beyond simply adjusting the rules in legislative terms; it has to address core issues such as having the elected government take effective responsibility over the military. The Union has openly pointed to public statements by representatives of the military that sometimes suggest a different policy line than the one professed by the government. We all witness recent similar situation in terms of both domestic and foreign policy in Turkey.

Regarding human rights and the rule of law, there has undeniably been a lot of progress even in areas considered taboo not so long ago. One should not forget that abolishing the death penalty or establishing the right to use and learn minority languages is already a big step forward. Nevertheless, Turkey itself seems to wish to advance fast and open accession negotiations within the established deadlines. We take into consideration this ambition but, there are still a lot of things to be done in order to reach this point.

At the Association Council last April, the Union was clear that major outstanding issues, in the field of the Copenhagen political criteria, require Turkey’s immediate attention. These issues mainly include:
• numerous allegations of the practice of torture throughout Turkey
• reports of arbitrary arrests and of the practice of incomunicado detention in the South East.
• contradictory court decisions as regards the determination to punish perpetrators of torture
• several court cases indicating that there is not yet a uniform interpretation and application of the provisions related to freedom of expression
• the still restrictive regime applicable to religious foundations and communities. Presently, the EU is particularly concerned about the way Turkey is handling the issue of property of foundations. We still hope that Turkey will keep its promises so that, further reforms, will address the issue according to international standards.
• full enjoyment of cultural rights by all Turks irrespective of their ethnic origin which is still not ensured. The restrictive nature of the recent regulations in the field of TV/Radio broadcasting and education in languages other than Turkish  appears to be hindering the implementation of the August 2002 reforms

There have also been additional factors that have raised our awareness regarding the human rights situation: these include the recent raid by security forces on the IHD offices, the ongoing hunger-strike deaths in the high security prisons and the still uncertain outcome of the Leyla Zana retrial. All these matters constitute elements in a picture of a still incomplete process towards reform where reforms on paper do not always lead to a tangible improvement of the situation on the ground.

I would like to point out that there are additional important Accession Partnership priorities, referring to – if I need to make a selection -  issues under economic criteria or Justice and Home Affairs. In the field of economic criteria we believe that the government has initially made some right choices; regarding JHA, we would still appreciate an improved cooperation on the part of Turkish authorities. We are also very much committed to negotiating and concluding a community readmission agreement.

Finally. I would like to point out that there still exist two major priorities, well reflected in the revised Accession Partnership as well, i.e. the Cyprus issue and Greek-Turkish relations.

On the former, although the efforts by the UNSG to solve the political problem in Cyprus have come to a halt at least for the time being, his plan still remains on the table.  The Secretary-General of the United Nations has pointed out that in order to find a solution there must be a genuine political acceptance for his proposals and a clear time-table for the conclusion of the negotiations. The Spring European Council regretted that the efforts of the United Nations Secretary General to find a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem have failed. The EU strongly supports the continuation of the Secretary General's mission of good offices and of negotiations on the basis of his proposals. It urged all parties concerned to spare no effort towards a just, viable and functional settlement and, in particular, the Turkish Cypriot leadership to reconsider its position. In this respect, Turkey’s Accession partnership priority to strongly support efforts to find a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem through the continuation of the United Nations Secretary General's mission of good offices and of negotiations on the basis of his proposals remains crucial. The President of the European Council directly referred to it in a public statement even recently. The government of the Republic of Cyprus has demonstrated in practical terms its will to facilitate such a settlement. The Protocol on Cyprus which is part of the Accession Treaty also leaves room to accommodate such a settlement. But our joint will is to hopefully achieve this even before May 1st 2004. The opening of the green line has been ample proof that both communities on the island can and want to live and prosper together. But practical changes that were imposed from bottom up by the society cannot replace institutional solutions, which must exist, which is the only way that Cyprus can guarantee the new horizon that it deserves.  The European Union and Greece, acting not only as Presidency but also a member-state, support the need to find a solution based on the Annan plan.

On the issue of the peaceful settlement of disputes, there has already been a change in the atmospherics in Greek-Turkish relations in various fields. Exploratory contacts between officials of both foreign ministries were launched in March 2002. Discussions have continued at the level of Senior Officials of the foreign ministries. The improved climate has led to an increase in bilateral exchanges (civil society, increased economic co-operation and technical assistance offered by Greece to Turkey on EU matters) and to a number of bilateral agreements (promoting tourism and commerce, combating organized crime, promoting cultural exchanges and economic development). Nevertheless, from the other side we witness some practices for example by the turkish airforce that do not apply to Turkey’s goal which is no other than the deepening of its relations with the European Union. We are looking forward to further progress in this area, based on the principle of peaceful settlement of disputes, in accordance with the Helsinki conclusions and the relevant Accession Partnership priority. As decided in Helsinki, the European Council will review the situation relating to any outstanding disputes, in particular concerning the repercussions on the accession process and in order to promote their settlement through the International Court of Justice, at the latest by the end of 2004.

Concluding, let me welcome once again the active interest shown by the European Parliament regarding the accession strategy for Turkey. We will continue to work together in order to achieve what has been a clear success in the most unambiguous terms: expanding the area of peace, stability and prosperity and doing away with the dividing lines of the past. We are happy that the enlargement policy of the Union continues to be a major incentive for countries like Turkey to reform and share the benefits mentioned before. We are also happy that this continues to be the wish of the Turkish people and the policy of its elected representatives. We are looking forward to making the progress needed in the deadlines foreseen so that we secure a bright future for EU-Turkey relations.

Thank you