ITALY
Italy backs Turkey's EU bid '100%'
Thu, 22 Nov 2007
Italy backs Turkish membership of the European Union "100 percent" but Ankara needs to make progress on key issues such as the Cyprus question, the Italian foreign minister said on Thursday.
"We are supporting 100 percent the efforts of Turkey to become a full member of EU, this is also in our national interest," Massimo D'Alema said during a visit to the Turkish city of Istanbul.
The minister paid tribute to Turkey's determination to continue its efforts to join the bloc, but said progress still needed to be made on certain issues.
He called on Turkey to do away with article 301 of its penal code which punishes "insults to national identity" and has been used against a number of intellectuals including Orhan Pamuk, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
D'Alema said it was also time to return to the major EU sticking point of Cyprus with elections coming up on the Mediterranean island next year.
"Next year is an important year because there are elections in Cyprus and I think that the Cyprus problem will be solved much more easily next year," he said.
The February 2008 presidential election in Cyprus will be the first to allow Turkish Cypriots living in the government-controlled south of the island to vote for the president, alongside Greek Cypriots.
Last year, the EU froze accession talks with Turkey in eight of the 35 policy areas candidates must negotiate.
The move was in response to Ankara's refusal to allow Greek Cypriot vessels to use its sea and air ports under a customs union pact with the bloc.
Earlier this month during a visit to Rome, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised to step up work on the reforms required by the EU
Turkey began adhesion negotiations with Brussels in 2005.
AFP
A big congratulatins to the RoC for making it possible for Turkish speaking Cypriots to vote. Steps like this will lead to political equality.
