Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-04-01-Speech-4-032"
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"en.20040401.2.4-032"2
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"Mr President, we opposed the forthcoming enlargement of the European Union, involving the accession of ten new members. It is not that we are opposed in principle to these countries’ accession, but my group and I, the French delegation to the Group for a Europe of Democracies and Diversities, have been expressing our opposition to an unrealistic integration timetable and to the immediate accession of countries which, like ourselves, are not ready for such a leap into the unknown. Our position on Turkish accession is quite different. In this case, we are opposed in principle to Turkish accession. As General de Gaulle remarked, there is no getting away from the facts. Geographically historically and culturally, Turkey is not a European country. The fact is that, under Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union, any applicant for membership of the European Union must be a European State. I should just like to raise two further points, in addition to the many that have already been made.
Firstly, in the multipolar world in which we live, Turkey is an Eastern power; it plays a dominant role among the Turkish-speaking peoples of Central Asia and shares lengthy borders with Iran, Iraq and Syria. Such an unstable region, in our view, is no place for the European Union.
Secondly, the political representation of the countries in the European Union is linked to their relative demographic weight. In due course, Turkey will be more populous than any European country. We do not want a country whose accession arouses such controversy to become a political heavyweight in the European Union.
After years of procrastination on the opening of accession negotiations with Turkey, the vote on this report is an opportunity to send out a strong political signal. Even though we subscribe to the numerous criticisms in the report relating to the country’s lack of preparedness for accession, the report focuses on Turkey’s progression towards accession, and we shall therefore oppose it, because, like a great number of our fellow citizens, we are against Turkish membership of the Union.
To conclude, let me leave you with one final question: where is the expansion of this Union, this so-called European Union, going to stop?"@en1
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