Turkey unveils EU reform plan despite slowdown in talks

(ANKARA) - Turkey unveiled Tuesday a programme of technical reforms until 2013 to bring the country in line with European Union norms, despite a slowdown in its turbulent accession process.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Ankara was determined to advance reforms, including in the eight policy areas where negotiations were frozen in December because of Turkey's refusal to grant trade privileges to Cyprus, which Ankara does not recognize.

"The problematic issues are mostly political. We cannot cling to them and remain at a standstill," Gul told a press conference.

"When the political problems are one day resolved, we will meet with the EU and it will take us half an hour to open and close those chapters," he said.

Candidates for membership are required to adopt EU norms in 35 policy areas.

Turkey cannot oficially close talks in any of the chapters until the Cyprus dispute is resolved.

Ending a long hiatus in the talks, the EU last month began negotiations with Turkey on "enterprise and industry policy," only the second chapter Ankara has managed to open since "science and research" in June 2006.

"We maintain our goal of EU membership with determination," Gul said. "The reforms will facilitate our negotiating process on the one hand and, on the other, raise standards in many aspects of our daily lives."

The programme outlines a timetable for completing legislative amendments and other legal regulations by 2013 to align with EU standards in areas ranging from transport and food safety to customs, competition policies and the environment.

Turkey's chief negotiator in the accession talks, Economy Minister Ali Babacan, explained that the timetable concerned only the completion of legislative work and did not include target dates for their implementation, which would be decided later on a case-by-case basis.

The programme will require parliament to enact about 200 pieces of legislation plus some 400 other regulations to be issued by the government, he said.

"Political reforms will also continue. We will focus particularly on resolving problems that emerge on the ground in the implementation of the reforms," he said.

Gul said Ankara is committed to amending Article 301 of the penal code, which has resulted in the prosecution of dozens of intellectuals for "insulting Turkishness" and triggered harsh EU criticism, but did not say when.

Turkey's EU membership talks, which got off to a turbulent start in October 2005, have been overshadowed by presidential elections in May and general elections scheduled for November.