EU says Turkey should do more reforms for accession talks

Turkey’s efforts to join the EU are going nowhere because Ankara has failed to live up to its obligations for change and reform, the EU said Monday.

It is “in the interest of both parties that accession negotiations gain further momentum,” a statement said after a meeting of the EU-Turkey Association Council attended by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

Turkey, on a renewed push to join the 27-member EU, “would be able to accelerate the pace” of the talks by making progress towards the benchmarks set, it said.

However, the “EU noted with deep regret that Turkey, despite repeated calls, continued refusing to fulfil its obligation of full, no-discriminatory implementation” of the terms set for the negotiations.

By the same token, the EU “also noted that Turkey had not made progress towards the necessary normalisation of its relations with … Cyprus.”