The 2008 Progress Report

Marc Pierini

Each year, November is the season for a new report on progress made by Turkey on her way towards EU accession. The report is meant to review all aspects – both political and technical – of Turkey's achievements during the past year. It provides a comprehensive overview which is useful for the accession negotiations. Accession negotiations, by the way, are not really give-and-take “negotiations” but rather an alignment process on EU norms and values.

As every year, the Progress Report is comprehensive and fair: it gives credit where credit is due and points to insufficiencies where progress has been slow. This is the very nature of the Progress Report and the very role of the European Commission. It is a mutually accepted episode of the accession process.

Inevitably, in Turkey as in any other accession countries, present or past, the Progress Report may be criticised. Some may find it to be intrusive, unbalanced or not specific enough on issues of particular interest to one stakeholder or the other.

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