Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-02-14-Speech-3-021"
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"en.20010214.2.3-021"2
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"Mr President, the Council’s proposed regulation is a logical successor to the Helsinki decisions. If a country is a candidate country then a clear strategy and a clear financing package are required, just as they are for other candidate countries. It is a sound proposal and Mr Swoboda’s amendments improve on it. What is currently more interesting to my mind, is the question as to whether Turkey and the European Union have drawn closer together since the Helsinki decisions. My own group is still facing the same dilemma on that level. As you all know, we were, and still are, highly critical of the Turkish Government’s record as regards human rights, the position of the Kurds and the dominant position of the army. The crucial question then, and now, is what can, and must, the EU do to improve the situation? The answer then, and now, is that the only way to achieve this is through dialogue, in the context of enlargement and membership. This is also because the forces we are in touch with, the progressive forces, regard Europe’s support as something that will help them on their way to change. The question now is does this strategy work? I fear it is too early to say because the picture is extremely mixed. Let me cite the prisoners’ riot by way of example. Of course it was a step in the right direction to propose that, henceforth, there should no longer be thirty prisoners to one large cell, rather there should be single occupancy, or only a few people to a cell. Naturally, that is the kind of improvement we have always pushed for. However, the picture is greatly obscured by the fact that the regime in prisons is exactly as it always was. And this regime goes hand in hand with acts of torture, which are now said to be easier to perpetrate because of the individual cells. My group's response is that we must continue to pursue this strategy, but – and Mr Swoboda has also reminded us of this – there is absolutely no guarantee of success. The price of accession is high, high for the army and for the supporters of the monolithic unified state. Can we compel, or perhaps entice them to pay this price? It is the European Union’s responsibility to ask this question and have a crack at it. With that in mind, and as I said before, the regulation is a positive step and the amendments represent an improvement. However, it is up to Turkey – and that, I think, is what needs to emerge from this debate – to see whether these overtures towards the European Union are sincerely meant, because my group’s motto still holds good: no radical reforms without the prospect of membership, but without radical reforms, no prospect of membership."@en1
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