New funding plan to prepare Turkey for membership

Date: 20/07/2000

By Simon Taylor

THE European Commission is set to announce a new financing plan to help Turkey prepare for EU membership.

Officials say the move, which will combine existing funding sources to create a single financial framework, will make it easier for Ankara to obtain funds for the wide range of initiatives needed to bring the country's national laws into line with Union legislation.

The new framework will put Turkey on a par with the other 12 countries applying for EU membership. They have access to an annual €3.12-billion budget set aside to help candidates modernise their agricultural sectors, improve environmental standards, upgrade transport links, and develop the institutions and administrative culture needed to apply and enforce Union law.

Commission officials say total direct grant aid to Turkey could reach €530 million over the 2000-02 period, with the largest single amount of €380 million coming from the MEDA programme. Following a visit to Turkey last week, Enlargement Commissioner Gunter Verheugen said he was also considering releasing some of the €450 million which was promised to Turkey to soften the impact of its 1995 customs union with the EU but has not been paid out because of political objections from the European Parliament and Greece.

Providing Turkey with a single financial framework is a key element of the Union's strategy to help Ankara prepare for membership. Verheugen said last week that some differences between Ankara and the EU were narrowing, but much more remained to be done. "We are closer now. Not really close, but closer," he added.

Turkey's progress has been limited since Union leaders decided to give the country official candidate status at their Helsinki summit last December. Ankara has only just decided to appoint former Premier Mesut Yilmaz to head a government secretariat which will coordinate reform efforts and a series of technical level meetings to identify the gaps between EU legislation and Turkish law only began last month.

The meetings examined the reforms needed in a range of sectors, including agriculture, single market rules and competition law. But the biggest obstacle to Turkish membership remains its record on human rights and especially its treatment of the Kurdish minority. However, Verheugen praised a recent report on human rights drawn up by the Turkish parliament during last week's visit, expressing the hope that it would become official government policy.