Optimism Building That Turkey Can become EU Member

Would-be EU enlargement commissioner Stefan Fuele on Tuesday backed Turkey's bid to join the bloc, rejecting the kind of lesser "privileged partnership" relationship put forward by some Austrian, France and German politicians.

"Privileged partnership is not on the table", for Turkey, which is currently in slow-moving negotiations to join the European Union, Fuele said.

Fuele stated that he wanted to give the negotiating process some "credibility", hinting that he wanted to make Turkey feel that EU accession was a definite if they meet all the criteria, in the hope of giving them renewed vigour to push through the necessary reforms. This determination and similar reports recently are adding optimism that Turkish EU accession could be a reality.

"Yes it's difficult," he admitted, but cautioned that there was no better lever to helping Turkey modernise and reform its society.

"I'm confident that at the end of the process it will be a new, modern and reformed Turkey whose accession to the EU will be to the benefit of both the European Union and Turkey," he stressed, while adding that he understood the "differing views on this issue".

Asked if he could envisage Turkey as an EU member he answered: "yes, I can. It's about the credibility of the European Union, but also first of all about Turkey fulfilling all the criteria [necessary to become a member]."

Fuele conceded that, at present the negotiations are going at a "glacial pace", but among those who follow the market there is a genuine sense that full membership is getting closer to being a reality in the distant future.

"When they opened another chapter we thought, oh, here we go again on the road to nowhere. But since then we have seen a pro-accession Spanish parliament take over the EU presidency, German leaders revoking their opposition to full accession and several other events that have made us feel slightly more confident that we could really clear up at this visit," said Julian Walker, director of UK based Turkish property agent Spot Blue.

Spot Blue is currently marketing Turkey properties for sale from £25k.

There seems to be more confidence in Turkey as well. The EU information office has been reopened in Istanbul it was revealed today.

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