On 23 November, Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn gave a tightly-worded summary of the status and prospects of Turkey's EU accession process in a speech delivered to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee.

Stressing that Turkey, just like all other EU candidates, "must meet the criteria to the letter", Rehn said that it now falls on Ankara to "ensure the implementation of commitments undertaken under the Association Agreement, including the customs union". The latter reference was to the still outstanding "ratification and full implementation of the additional protocol to the Ankara Agreement, including the lifting of restrictions on Cypriot vessels docking at Turkish ports".

Turkey's progress has been "bold and significant", but "the pace of changes has slowed in 2005 and the implementation of reforms remains uneven, to say the least", said Rehn.

Among the short-term priorities ahead for Turkey, Rehn named

• the freedom of expression and the media
• legislation relating to women's rights
• the rights of the non-Muslim religious minorities and communities
• the need for zero tolerance against torture and ill-treatment
• the respect for full trade union rights
• the need to address the Kurdish problem in Turkey's southeast

In Rehn's assessment, the EU needs to "see concrete progress early on in the negotiations on the short term priorities under the political criteria, to be able to make meaningful progress in the technical negotiations on the acquis communitaire". If progress stalls or slows down, "there would be neither need nor meaning for negotiations on policy chapters either".

In his concluding remark, Rehn told Ankara that "the ball is in your court, and I trust that you will play it wisely".