Report slates slow progress on Turkey

According to the experts of the Independent Commission on Turkey, the Union's contradictory behaviour in accession talks with Ankara risks "damaging Turkish domestic reforms and harming the EU’s own interests", says the Financial Times. In a report issued on September the 7th, the Commission, chaired by Nobel peace prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari and "whose first report on Turkey, issued in 2004, was instrumental in persuading EU governments to open official membership talks with Turkey one year later", criticises EU leaders for "slowing down the accession talks and giving the impression they do not want Turkey to join the bloc", notes the FT. The report also condems EU leaders for "allowing the talks to become a proxy for popular concerns in western Europe about immigration, job security and Islam".