The Financial Times in Britain has written that the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) could help Ankara in its integration with the European Union.

- 12 / 05 / 2008 09:45

The European Union needs all the help it can get in engaging with Turkey. With Ankara’s bid for EU membership running into political disenchantment both in Turkey and in the Union, it may fall to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to give the wheel of progress a modest push forward.

With strong EU backing, the EBRD agreed last week to start examining plans to extend its operations to Turkey.

A final decision will not come before October, but the signs are that it will be positive. Ankara, which is a bank member but not a country of operation, has long sought access to the EBRD’s money and skills.

But it was blocked by the US which wanted the bank, set up to aid the ex-Communist states, to stick to its last.

The US argued that with the World Bank active around the globe there was no need for another general development bank.

The EBRD should do the job for which it was designed then close down and set a good example for bureaucrats everywhere.

The fact that these particular bureaucrats are in London, while the World Bank’s are in Washington, naturally had no influence on American thinking.

Faced with the strength of feeling in the EU, which controls 60 per cent of the vote at the EBRD, Washington appears ready to back down. It is right to do so.

The west must keep engagement with Turkey among its top priorities.

It needs to encourage the development of a modern Muslim democracy in Turkey for the good of the country, Europe and the wider Middle East.

EU leaders must work harder to counter public opposition towards Turkey’s membership of the union.

Turkish leaders must not allow popular Islamist pressures to stop them modernising their country. The EBRD cannot play a decisive role in western-Turkish relations.

But, given the EU’s difficulties over enlargement, the bank can contribute something and something is better than nothing. In particular, it can encourage small business – the bedrock of any democracy.

That said, the US is correct to ask tough questions about the EBRD’s future.

The bank has finished doing new business in the Czech Republic and expects to stop soon in the seven other ex-Communist states that joined the EU in 2004.

The shareholders must ensure that the bank sticks to its mandate and pulls back whenever the private sector can take up the slack. If that means that the bank will eventually close, so be it.

But for now it continues to play a useful role, especially in the poorer countries of the former Soviet Union. If it can assist Turkey for a few years, then it should.

Financial Times