Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “However, we think that the period of reform required by Turkey’s EU journey could be completed so much more rapidly.”

TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu recalled that the European Commission is charged with preparing regular reports to the European Council and the European Parliament regarding candidate countries, Turkey among them.

“The Progress Report performs a very important function in gauging the state of Turkey’s financial, social and economic transformation, to document it and analyze erroneous and inadequacies in application and taking steps to address them. We see that the Progress Report and EU accession process act as an ‘anchor’ in Turkey’s transformation period.

Nevertheless, the power of the ‘EU anchor’ is connected directly to the course of membership negotiations and the perspective given to the candidate country. Unfortunately, the EU anchor isn’t as strong as it was between 1999 and 2004 for Turkey. No date has been set for the completion of Turkey’s accession process. No target date has been set for Turkey’s EU membership. The number of chapters Turkey is able to engage during negotiations has been severely limited due to political reasons. Therefore, we think that the performance attributed to Turkey in the Progress Report be viewed in this light.

The Progress Report and Strategy Document, unfortunately, does not harbor a vision which would change the present course of Turkey’s accession to the European Union, one that would hasten the accession process.

We, however, think that the period of reform required by Turkey’s EU journey could be completed so much more rapidly. The European Union still maintains its importance in regards to Turkey’s economic, social and political reforms.”
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