TURKEY’S PROGRESS
On April 21, the European Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs adopted Turkey’s 2007 Progress Report, Turkish daily Hurriyet reported. The draft report, prepared by Dutch rapporteur Ria Oomen-Ruijten, was adopted with 53 votes against two. Four committee members abstained. The report calls on Turkey to expedite reforms. The committee also urged Turkey to transform priorities and timelines into reform plans. Ruijten said that Turkey should continue reforms to modernise and implement the principle of the rule of law. The plenary will vote on the report in May.

ROMANIA AND MOLDOVA
Romanian president Trajan Basescu said on April 17 that he did not consider the signing of a formal treaty delineating the frontier between Romania and Moldova as a priority, regnum.ru reported on April 18. Basescu said that “quite a number of people” in Ukraine were discussing, albeit unofficially, the possible return to Ukraine of the unrecognised breakaway republic of Transdniester. He said that the proponents of such a redrawing of borders failed to consider possible Moldovan counterclaims on territory in southern Ukraine. The Moldovan foreign ministry reacted with a statement reaffirming that the signing of a border treaty would serve as “a constructive precondition for regulating border relations between the two countries on the basis of European principles of good-neighbourliness”.

GREECE’S SIEMENS SCANDAL
Three former ministers serving under the previous socialist government, four OTE telecom board members, and officials from Greece’s ruling New Democracy party are among those allegedly involved in the Siemens bribery scandal, according to sources quoted by the online version of Greek daily Kathimerini.
Siemens is alleged to have spent more than 100 million euro over a 17-year period in Greece to bribe local officials in order to secure state contracts through its Greek unit, Siemens Hellas, the newspaper said.

REHN ON SERBIA
In an interview on April 21 with German daily Die Welt, European Commissioner Olli Rehn said that he supported the signing of a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with Serbia before the May 11 parliamentary elections in the country, but said that ratification of an agreement would only be possible if Belgrade co-operated fully with The Hague tribunal. Asked why the signing of the agreement with Belgrade prior to the May 11 elections was so important, Rehn said that Brussels wanted to keep Serbia on the path to Europe.