EU report underlines Turkey's importance for European security

A new expert report prepared under the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) stresses Turkey's importance for Europe's security, and calls on European leaders to take a more flexible attitude towards Turkey, and to pressure the Greek Cypriot administration to solve the Cyprus issue. The report on European Defense Goals for 2020, prepared by the European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) on the ESDP's 10th anniversary, addresses joint European goals for security and defense and ways to translate those goals into short- and long-term policies. It says that the EU should improve its cooperation within itself and with candidate countries, giving special attention to Turkey. It adds that Turkey should be fully integrated into the ESDP and indeed all EU institutions. The report also calls for a more flexible European stance on Turkey's concerns over its EU accession bid, and the Cyprus issue, stressing Turkey's importance for further development of ties between the EU and the NATO. Making progress on a solution to the Cyprus issue needs more institutional pressure from the EU on the Greek Cypriot administration, the report says. The ESDP is a major element of the EU's common foreign and security policy pillar, and is the domain of EU policy covering defense and military aspects.