{"id":21259,"date":"2010-08-12T21:09:11","date_gmt":"2010-08-12T19:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=21259"},"modified":"2023-04-08T13:57:53","modified_gmt":"2023-04-08T10:57:53","slug":"should-turkey-join-the-eu-the-view-from-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2010\/08\/12\/should-turkey-join-the-eu-the-view-from-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Turkey Join the EU? The View from Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Scott Bleiweis<\/span> | August 11, 2010<\/p>\n

During his recent visit to Ankara, British Prime Minister David Cameron made his stance on Turkish accession <\/span>to the European Union plain and clear. \u201cI will remain your strongest possible advocate for EU membership,\u201d he said. \u201cTogether I want us to pave the road from Ankara to Brussels.\u201d The Belgian government also supports <\/span>such a position, and has pledged to work with Turkey to make its accession a reality.<\/p>\n

In praising Turkey\u2019s participation in NATO (though conveniently overlooking its blocking of NATO-EU cooperation on security issues), Cameron further declared, \u201cIt\u2019s just wrong to say Turkey can guard the camp but not be allowed to sit inside the tent.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Quentin Peel<\/span>, associate editor of Financial Times<\/em>, observes, \u201cIt was familiar British policy, but spelt out with unusual passion, and very few cautionary words.\u201d The Turkish media also picked up on Cameron\u2019s praise, with the Sabah daily displaying \u201cThe EU would be poor without Turkey\u201d as its front page headline.<\/p>\n

Guido Westerwelle, Germany\u2019s foreign minister, is also a strong supporter of Turkey\u2019s EU membership<\/span>, but got into trouble with domestic leaders in Berlin last January after he \u201cgave his word\u201d as foreign minister that Germany would not actively block Turkish accession. \u201cI want to encourage you [Turkey] to carry on,\u201d he said, though not everyone in the German government agrees with him. Chancellor Angela Merkel has made comments favoring a \u201cprivileged partnership<\/span>\u201d status for Turkey, as opposed to full membership.<\/p>\n

Negotiations with Turkey on accession would remain fair and open, Westerwelle insisted on his recent visit, but the outcome of such talks <\/span>might not result in full membership. He mentioned Germany\u2019s great interest in having \u201csuch a strategically important partner\u2026orientated on Europe.\u201d But in interviews before he left Berlin he talked of Turkey being \u201cnot ready\u201d for membership, and of the EU being equally unprepared for Turkey. Not surprisingly, these comments received less attention in the Turkish media than Cameron\u2019s did.<\/p>\n

According to Peel, \u201cin terms of realistic European politics, Westerwelle was closer to the mark than Cameron. He hammered home the message that Turkey still has much to do in terms of judicial reform and guaranteeing minority rights to qualify for EU membership. It is not a comfortable message, but it is necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cameron\u2019s statements <\/span>were certainly bold, but his \u201cdesire to please his hosts\u201d may result in the setting of dangerous and unrealistic expectations. UK journalist Geoffrey Wheatcroft<\/span> goes so far as to say when \u201cwhen Cameron, like Tony Blair before him, trumpets the Turkish cause, it only confirms Continental suspicions that London is acting on behalf of Washington.\u201d Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, Wheatcroft notes, are both \u201copenly skeptical\u201d about Turkey joining the EU.<\/p>\n

Peel concludes, \u201cBoth Cameron and Westerwelle are right that Turkey should be encouraged to join the EU. It would be of great strategic benefit to both. That does not mean it can be done. Europe\u2019s politicians are going to have to do a huge sales job to persuade their own public opinion that it is a good idea. Making nice noises in Ankara won\u2019t help. The real test will be with voters at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott Bleiweis <\/strong><\/span>is an intern with The Atlantic Council editorial office. He is currently pursuing a masters degree in International Studies with the Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. Photo credit: Getty Images<\/span>.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Scott Bleiweis | August 11, 2010 During his recent visit to Ankara, British Prime Minister David Cameron made his stance on Turkish accession to the European Union plain and clear. \u201cI will remain your strongest possible advocate for EU membership,\u201d he said. \u201cTogether I want us to pave the road from Ankara to Brussels.\u201d The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":32387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,835,48,12,89,94],"tags":[7925,1489],"class_list":["post-21259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eu-members","category-europe","category-france","category-germany","category-turkey","category-uk","tag-turkey-eu","tag-turkey-in-europe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}