European Parliament
A7-0138/2012
Antigoni Papadopoulou  (S&D ).
– Madam President, Turkey, as a candidate country, is obliged to abide by the
acquis communautaire
. It must respect human rights, including women’s rights and gender equality. It must implement legislative reforms and empower women in social, economic and political life so as to reach the objectives of Europe 2020.
Turkey still has a long way to go. According to progress reports on Turkey for 2010 and 2011, Turkey needs to implement the existing legal framework in order to fight honour killings, forced marriages and violence against women, and to combat female illiteracy, discrimination, stereotypes and the very low female participation rate in the Turkish labour force and in political life.
We therefore call on Turkey to implement comprehensive reforms, to fulfil the Copenhagen criteria for the sake of its own modernisation, and to establish a climate of mutual understanding and respect with all EU Member States, thus making it possible to exchange best practices on gender equality with all of those States for the benefit of its own female citizens.

