Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-12-01-Speech-3-135"
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"en.19991201.10.3-135"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, allow me to start by thanking Mr Morillon for his extremely factual report and his conscious effort to stick to the point. Commissioner, because we have heard some criticism of the Commission, I would like to congratulate you and your officials, who are with us today, for the committed approach which they take to this issue, and for always communicating and discussing matters with Parliament.
Of course, assessments sometimes turn out differently in various Commission documents and papers. But perhaps that has more to do with erratic Turkish policy, which sometimes makes more and sometimes makes less progress. But anyone who sees things as they really are will note that some progress has been made over recent months and it deserves acknowledgement. We must not fail to take the matter seriously, as some previous speakers have said and done, for to do otherwise would only give succour to the Turkish government! What I wonder is: how come Akim Birdal is in favour of introducing a new strategy, how come other Kurdish representatives are in favour of our introducing a new strategy, how come the entire opposition to the government and civil society are in favour of our introducing a new strategy if all it does is support the government?
I should like to extend my special thanks to the Greek government and to foreign secretary Papandreou; that was a courageous step, especially in light of domestic political relations. It was also a highly risky step which was clearly also motivated by the situation in Cyprus and the attempt to bring Cyprus closer to the European Union and find a political solution to the Cyprus question.
So we are not uncritical of Turkey; on the contrary. I repeat, Turkey would be a lot further down the road to Europe if it had applied fundamentally different measures in the field of human rights and minority rights in good time, at the right time, especially with regard to the Kurdish question, democracy in relation to Greece and a contribution towards solving the problem in Cyprus. But if the Council decides in the next few days – I say
to officially recognise Turkey as a candidate, then Turkey must realise that the ball is in its court. Then it will be up to Turkey to make the next move, because we will have made a move, partly in response to the minor changes which we have seen, partly in anticipation of what might, should and must follow. But then the ball will be in Turkey’s court and it is up to Turkey to make the next move if further progress is to be made in bringing Turkey and Europe closer together. We want to have Turkey in the European Union, but Turkey knows full well that only a Turkey which recognises the Copenhagen criteria can become a member of the European Union. Every candidate country knows that and Turkey should know it too. I trust that it will soon take steps to meet these criteria. It will, without doubt, take a number of years, but the more quickly Turkey acts, the more quickly it will become a member of the European Union."@en1
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