There are fears that Turkey's already slow-paced accession talks may hit another obstacle with an increasingly Turkey-skeptic EP; however, analysts agree that there is no need to worry much as Turkey's accession will be more about its quest for realizing the reforms necessary for membership.Akşam's Deniz Gökçe does not think the existence of a majority in the EP that is opposed to Turkey's full membership will influence the course of Turkey's accession talks much during the upcoming term, which will continue until 2013, because Turkey will have more communication with the European Council and European Commission in its entry talks during this period. He says entry talks will continue anyway, although there will be no change in the stances of countries opposing Turkey's accession, such as France, Germany and Austria.
According to Milliyet's Hasan Cemal, there are two important conclusions that could be drawn from the results of the EP elections: The socialists had a terrible defeat, and Turkey's EU bid has become more difficult with the victory of Turkey-skeptics. Nevertheless, he says the emergence of such a picture in the EU should not lead to pessimism in Turkey because it is in Turkey's hands to convince the skeptics about its EU accession by carrying out the reforms necessary for membership. “The ball is in Turkey's court. It needs to democratize more, it needs to put military-civilian, democracy-secularism relations on track; it needs to work for a solution to the Cyprus problem,” he says. Referring to an official from a Brussels-based think tank who said, “What was done in Turkey between 2002 and 2004 was very important; things slowed down after 2005,” Cemal says Turkey's real problem is the slowed-down reform process. “It is necessary to catch the 2003-2004 reform spirit. There are those in Brussels who want to see this spirit. The current picture of Turkey today is not the one that the EU would like to see. We have many shortcomings. So, Brussels righteously wants to see the 2003-2004 reform enthusiasm in Ankara,” he says.
Star's Mehmet Altan is not too pessimistic about the picture created by the results of the EP elections regarding Turkey's EU accession. He says that although things seem to have become harder for Turkey -- particularly because two strong opponents of Turkey's EU bid, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, increased their power after the elections --the leftists, liberals and Greens that support Turkey's EU membership did not lose much power overall. “The Greens compensated for the loss of the socialists by winning more votes, and everyone in Brussels keeps saying that the way toward Turkey's EU accession will be through its realization of reforms,” suggests Altan.
