Brussels Cautious on Seventh EU Adaptation Package

A short statement yesterday from the EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Gunther Verhaugen, was guarded in its language.

Verhaugen said the Union acknowledged the package as an important step in the transition from military to civilian supervision of the National Security Council (MGK), bringing it more in line with the status of equivalent institutions in the EU. The Commissioner noted significant progress had been made in the fight against torture, and to establish freedom of expression and association. Verhaugen emphasized that implementation was more important than legislation.

‘MGK takes hit to heart’

Meanwhile, the adaptation package approval was prominent in the English and German media. A European diplomat told the Financial Times yesterday that Turkey was ready to start EU membership discussions.The Times newspaper said in yesterday’s edition that the laws passed in Parliament hit the MGK in the heart and transformed the Council into an advisory body by removing its executive power. The Telegraph referred to the Ataturk Era, comparing the dimensions of the package’s reforms to those of Ataturk’s reforms. The German newspaper Frankfurter Rundschau announced its approval of the package with the headline, “Ankara Rewrites the Red Book”. The paper stated Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan wanted to update Turkey’s “secret constitution” in order to bring the country closer to the EU.

Selcuk Gultasli / Brussels / BELGIUM