Turkey: membership application, 12 April 1987

The European Commission has published its last Strategy Paper which highlights the processes to be accomplished before the integration of 10 new Member States. The Commission considers that Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia fulfil the political criteria and will have fulfilled the economic and acquis criteria within the timeframe foreseen for accession by the European Council. These countries will be ready for membership from the beginning of 2004. Turkey shall not be part of this first wave of accession countries. It should be ntoed however that Turkey has made considerable progress towards meeting the Copenhagen political criteria. The death penalty has been lifted except in case of war and important steps have been taken to permit broadcasting and education in languages other than Turkish. The state of emergency has been lifted in two of the four provinces where it had applied Nonetheless, Turkey does not fully meet the political criteria. The reforms contain a number of significant limitations, which are set out in the Regular Report, on the full enjoyment of fundamental rights and freedoms, many of the reforms require the adoption of regulations or other administrative measures and a number of important issues arising under the political criteria have yet to be adequately addressed. Turkey is encouraged to pursue the reform process to strengthen democracy and the protection of human rights, in law and in practice. The Commission recommends that the European Union should enhance its support for Turkey's pre-accession preparations. In order to help accelerate the implementation of Turkey's pre-accession strategy, increased financial assistance should be provided from 2004 under heading 7 of the budget devoted to pre-accession support. This increase is intended to enable Turkey to strengthen its public administration, support the adoption of the acquis, and to facilitate Turkey's integration into the European economy.�