EU to balance criticism and praise in Turkey report

By Paul Taylor, European Affairs Editor

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Europe's enlargement chief will praise Turkey's democratic resolution of a constitutional crisis when he unveils progress reports on candidates for EU membership on Tuesday, but seek a new push for stalled political reforms.

Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn will also warn that political problems left over from the ethnic conflicts of the 1990s are blocking progress in several Western Balkan countries towards joining the 27-nation European Union, aides said.

Rehn is keen to stress the positive after the Turkish government faced down a challenge from the military this year to its candidate for president, former Islamist Abdullah Gul, and won a resounding mandate from voters. Gul is now president.

But the report may give ammunition to Ankara's critics by detailing a lack of progress on freedom of expression and religion, civilian control over the military and the rights of women, minorities including Kurdish-speakers and trade unions.

"For the first time in four years, we don't have a crisis in the EU over Turkey this autumn," a European Commission official said, noting that despite strong public scepticism on both sides, the accession process was plodding slowly forward.

However, the official said Turkey could yet trigger fresh controversy in the EU if it stages a military incursion against armed Turkish Kurdish separatists operating from northern Iraq.

While fear of a further setback to its EU membership hopes may be a factor restraining Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, EU officials say domestic and regional pressures are so strong that Brussels may have little sway on the decision.

Ankara began tortuous membership negotiations in 2005 but part of the talks were suspended last December after it refused to open its ports and airports to traffic from Cyprus.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has said the populous, secular but mostly Muslim country is not in Europe and should not join the Union, but he has allowed its entry talks to proceed at snail's pace in his six months in office.

ULTIMATE BORDERS

Aides said Rehn will press Turkey to move quickly to reform article 301 of its penal code, used to prosecute journalists and intellectuals for "insulting Turkishness", notably over the mass killings of Armenians in 1915 as the Ottoman empire crumbled.

Foreign Minister Ali Babacan, who is also Turkey's chief EU negotiator, has deflected calls for swift action on this, saying a planned new constitution will bring freedom of expression and religion into line with European standards.

"We are saying that is not good enough. They need to move faster on article 301, which was used to bring more prosecutions last year than in 2005," the EU official said.

Sarkozy is delaying the extension of talks with Turkey into new policy areas to press for an EU summit next month to create a panel of "wise people" to consider the Europe's long-term role, which in his mind includes its ultimate borders.

But diplomats say supporters of enlargement such as Britain and Sweden have made clear they will not accept any mandate that would involve drawing final frontiers or calling into question the EU's commitment to Turkey's accession.