EU Awaits Turkey’s Reform Plan
EU officials privately have doubts about Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan’s reform plan and express concerns about freedom of the media.
“Turkey at a crossroads.” This expression has been used for so many years that it's now cliché. Yet, for Western observers of Turkey’s exciting — and troubling — European Union venture, this “chronic” state remains the order of the day, reinforced further with a sentiment of fatigue.
Such is the climate that I saw prevailing in Brussels after a series of conversations there this week with EU diplomats and politicians, who spoke mostly “off the record” given the delicate state of affairs in the process.
EU decision-making bodies, seeking to dispel the ambiguity in Turkey’s membership talks, appear to have relaxed a bit after a critical threshold was passed. With Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) failing to garner enough support to rule Germany on its own, no obstacle remains to open the 22nd chapter in the accession talks, a move intended to revitalize the process.
“Had the CDU came to power alone, EU-Ankara ties would have plunged into deeper trouble,” a German politician said. “Now there will be a coalition and Germany, as a country loyal to the principle of pacta sunt servanda [agreements must kept], will raise no objections to the opening of a new chapter.”
