Ahead of progress report, EU's fule praises Turkşsh foreign policy, economic success

Speaking at this week's Turkey-European Union Joint Parliamentary meeting in Brussels, European Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan Fule addressed recent developments in Turkey and gave signals about the EU progress report set to be released early next month. "Turkey is conducting a more active policy in its region," said Fule. "Despite the economic crisis, Turkey has showed great resilience. In fact the country regained most of its losses." About last month's referendum on constitutional changes, Fule said, "The constitutional amendment package passed with 58 percent of the vote. Judicial independence and women rights are also in the package. Now these should be applied." But Fule criticized Turkey for not doing enough to address the rights of Alevis and non-Muslims as well as the Kurdish problem, and said it should open its ports to Greek Cypriot vessels. Also speaking at the meeting, Turkey's Chief Negotiator for EU talks Egemen Bagis said the annual progress reports should be objective and balanced. Bagis also said if certain obstacles to Turkey's membership negotiations were removed, 10 chapters could be opened in the short term and four in the medium term.