| The European Commission said on Tuesday that EU candidate Turkey must make “significant further efforts” on freedom of expression and religion now it has overcome a constitutional crisis. In an annual progress report on the European Union’s biggest and most controversial candidate for membership, the Commission said democracy had prevailed over military intervention in Turkish politics but Ankara now needed to renew the momentum of reforms that had slowed since 2005. “The new momentum should now be used to relaunch the reforms to improve fundamental freedoms, particularly the freedom of expression and religious freedom, so that they prevail in all corners of the country and in all walks of life,” Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said in an accompanying statement. |