Despite the fact that Liberal Democrats Europe-wide have just backed Turkish EU membership officially - meaning that Labour, the LibDems and the Conservatives in Britain all now support that huge phase of enlargement - Van Rompuy's appointment as the first ever permanent President of the EU could be a signal that Turkey's entry into the EU is highly unlikely in the near future.
Here is what our new unelected EU President has to say on the subject of Turkish membership:
"Turkey is not a part of Europe and will never be part of Europe. An expansion of the EU to include Turkey cannot be considered as just another expansion as in the past".
"The universal values which are in force in Europe, and which are fundamental values of Christianity, will lose vigour with the entry of a large Islamic country such as Turkey."
Or maybe I'm just a pissed off eurosceptic clutching at straws?
8 comments:
I don't really get the objection to Turkey joining, apart from German racism.
Greece supports it, and so do all our major parties.
I agree with some "hold" on Turkish free movement of labour util we have more equal economies, but I see no reason Turks are to be considered lower than the Ducth, Greeks, Italians, Latvians or Romanians (etc).
The territory of Turkey is integral to all European history, and the Ottoman Empire, as the precursor to Ottoman Turkey was a central part of the European power system in the 18th and 19th century.
Plus, Turks are often nice people and have really great food.
Another good post. Sorry I haven't commented before. Howeve its good to see you're featuring in the Daley Dozen, I think its now twice now in the last week!
And why wouldn't the EU want a frontier with Iraq through admitting Turkey?
Rejecting Turkey on grounds of geographic is moronic, when one considers the fact that the capital is closer to Brussels then more than one EU member state.
The EU is a Christian only men's club, nothing more nothing less
A good start for Van Rompuy. If he carries on like this, he might earn my grudging respect.
Christian values are the cornerstone of the West's fair-minded approach to humanity. Even atheists (myself included) can surely see that.
yes Fausty and what does that have to do with Turkey?
oh wait, no, sorry forgot, Turkey is predominantly Muslim, henceforth must be full of militants and hate jews etc
do your research first before you start handing out your 'respect'
What's also ridiculous is that the Ukraine isn't going to be countenanced with accession talks if they want them, because it's 'too big'. Turkey is more populous.
Geographic grounds cannot be upheld - Cyprus is, while culturally European, Asian in it's entirety.
Turkey has the specific issues of cultural differences (while the Ottoman Empire covered a lot of SE Europe, those places are more Byzantine/Greek in culture, rather than Turkish), North Cyprus and possibly Armenia to contend with, on top of the standard freedom and economic issues.
On the Freedom issues it scores rather low - its vast Muslim majority making Christians, etc social pariahs and its extreme French-style (ie in public life, expression of religious views is banned) secularism oppressing the Muslim majority. http://www.artsakank.com.cy/en/news/general/2009/turkey-fails-big-freedom-thought-religion-study-sh
Freedomhouse.org has Turkey as Partially free - 3.0 (the most free score in the partially free scale) this year: the same as Macedonia and Montenegro (other possible countries for entry). Belarus is 6.5 (the same as China and Saudi Arabia) - so rightly will be ignored by the EU if it wants to join. The Ukraine is 2.5. The lowest EU members are Romania and Bulgaria, level with Croatia (which is the massive favourite for the next country to join the EU) at 2.0. Italy, Greece and Latvia are at 1.5 and the other EU countries are at the lowest score of 1.0.
With time and and a lot of progress, I see no reason why Turkey should be allowed to join. However a lot of progress is needed!
www.sangambayard-c-m.com
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