[autom.vertaling] Turkije zou hervormingen moeten versnellen, zegt de EU (en)

In its annual report on progress, the EU will ask Turkey to improve human rights and curb the military's role in politics.

The report, due out next Wednesday (5 November), is expected to show that recent reforms carried out by the Turkish government have had few effects on the ground.

The key criticisms in the report surround the continued practice of torture, the slow implementation of laws guaranteeing the Kurdish minority the right to study and broadcast in their own language and the influence of the military on Turkish politics.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told the BBC he was aware of deficiencies in the implementation process.

"Of course there is work to be done on it", he said. "We say ourselves that it is very important to enact the laws but that it is even more important to implement them".

These progress reports are crucial for Turkey's bid to start EU membership negotiations.

EU leaders decided at a Summit in Copenhagen at the end of 2002, that the progress report in 2004 would be the basis upon which they would decide whether to begin membership talks with Ankara.