| | | | The report, approved by 261 votes in favour, to 75 against, said that if the Turkish government continued to implement reforms in a determined manner, accession negotiations could begin in December next year.
However, the report criticised the role that the Turkish Armed Forces have in the state and the lives of the people of Turkey. It also said that the National Security Council (MGK) should be abolished at some time in the future.
The report also stressed the need to redress the balance in relations between the military and elected representatives and for the first underlined the lack of religious freedom in Turkey. It stressed that Turkey’s being a majority Muslim state posed no problems to its entering the EU.
However, the initial draft of the report asking for changes in the principles set down by the republic’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, was softened in its final version, though a new constitution was called for.
The report also said that a resolution to the dispute on Cyprus was a condition for Turkey’s EU membership.
Another point raised by the report were concerns that although Ankara had made some legislative reforms to bring the country’s laws into line with those of the EU, these reforms had not been put into daily practice.
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