EU's Rehn urges Turkey to speed up pro-EU reforms

07/09/2008

ANKARA, Turkey -- EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn met with Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan Friday (September 5th), on the sidelines of an EU foreign ministers' meeting in France. Rehn advised Babacan that his country should move ahead with EU-related reforms at full speed, now that the government has survived a constitutional court case aimed at disbanding it.

"We have urged Turkey to reform the law on political parties as a matter of urgency to avoid this sort of severe political crisis in the future," Rehn told journalists after the meeting. He and Babacan also discussed the conflict in Georgia and Turkey's proposal for establishing a Caucasus co-operation and stability platform, as well as its efforts to mediate in Israeli-Syrian peace talks. (Hurriyet, Zaman, Milliyet, Reuters - 06/09/08)