EU Leaders Urged to Treat Turkey Fairly over Accession

The Independent Commission on Turkey headed up by Nobel Peace Prize winner Martti Ahtisaari has criticised EU leaders for their treatment of Turkey over its accession into the Union. The report, titled: Turkey in Europe: Breaking the Vicious Cycle also said that Turkey needs to put renewed energy into making the reforms it has promised in order to be considered.

Negotiations for Turkey's EU membership got off to a good start in 2004, but opposition, mainly from France and Germany has led to the process becoming stalled. The report detailed a vicious cycle in which EU opposition frustrates and alienates Turkey, which then loses momentum on making the reforms, giving more ammo to the opposition.

The report urged EU leaders to honour their commitments and treat Turkey with fairness and the respect it deserves.

"Negative attitudes and policies of European leaders are in clear contradiction to all previous EU decisions and commitment. They put in question EU credibility, reliability and the principle of pacta sunt servanda, that agreements are to be honoured," it said.

Membership to the EU promises to be massively beneficial to the economy and the property market, as well as being benefit to the EU in return, through improving ties with the (oil-rich) Arab world and adding one of the world's great emerging markets into the European fold.

Benefits to Turkey would include relaxed border controls, which would mean cheaper exports and imports and increased tourism, which would in turn make buying a property in Turkey a more favourable proposition for people throughout the EU.

It is a proven trend that membership to the EU adds thousands to property values, with countries like Estonia and Poland as shining examples, both saw property values increase by 15-30% per annum as they joined the union.

According to Julian Walker of Turkey property specialist Spot Blue, EU membership would have another benefit for Turkey:

"Though Turkey is already one of the world's most promising emerging markets; added to the BRIC nations along with Eastern Europe to become BRICET, some still have their doubts. Being accepted by the EU would be like a signal to the world telling them that Turkey is a safe and stable democracy in which to invest," he said.

Spot Blue is one of the largest UK based Turkish property agents, offering property for sale in Turkey from £25k.