Has Turkey fulfilled the Copenhagen political criteria?

The next few months are the last opportunity for Turkey to take steps that could influence the european Commissionu0092s recommendation in October on whether the Copenhagen political criteria have been met, and therefore whether to open accession negotiations, with the European Council due to take the decision in December. Following a brief summary of the Copenhagen political criteria and illustrations of how they were applied in the current enlargement, this short paper draws on a detailed review of Turkeyu0092s progress in relation to the most sensitive areas covered under the Copenhagen criteria (the role of the military, human rights, minority rights and the judiciary). It identifies 20 steps that could conceivably be taken in the next few months by the Turkish government with a view to securing a positive decision. Several but not all of these points have already been raised in the Commissionu0092s u00912003 Regular Report on Turkeyu0092s Progress towards Accessionu0092.