Turkey and Germany are to sign a co-operation agreement designed to help Turkey to bring the judiciary up to the standards required of a European Union member. At a press conference in Ankara German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries and her Turkish counterpart Cemil Cicek announced that the agreement would be signed in the spring. Zypries said that the agreement will allow the training of Turkish judges and an exchange programme. She said it would also see co-operation and an exchange of views between the two ministries on issues such as protection of minority rights and general freedoms. Zypries also praised reforms made by Turkey in the past five years. "The idea behind the agreement is to help the Turks implement these reforms," Zypries told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa after the press conference. Cicek said that co-operation with Germany was important in modernizing the judicial system in Turkey and that already many legislative reforms to the Turkish system had been inspired by the German legal code. He also said that the agreement would be of great importance just as Turkey is on the brink of starting E.U. membership negotiations. E.U. leaders will decide on December 17 on whether to actually start the negotiations. Turkey has been praised for legislating widespread human rights reforms, especially in the judicial system where state security courts have been abolished, but critics have said many of the reforms remain only paper and have yet to be properly implemented. --SP 1454 Local Time 1154 GMT
