Babacan decries attempts to water down EU membership commitment to Turkey

In an interview in daily Today's Zaman, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan put the blame for slow progress in Turkey's European Union accession talks on the bloc's current Term President France, saying that during a recent meeting of EU foreign ministers Paris seemed to have put new hurdles on Ankara's membership path. Stating that there were attempts to water down the EU's membership commitment to Turkey on the eve of that meeting, he criticized the EU for failing to open talks on six more chapters, despite the fact all technical preparations were complete.