Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-07-21-Speech-3-054"
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"en.20040721.2.3-054"2
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"Prime Minister, there is no doubt that the thorniest issue you will face during your European Presidency will be Turkey’s membership application. Not only because your Cabinet appears divided over that issue; you will meet with very heavy pressure to assess Turkey not on the basis of meeting the Copenhagen criteria, but merely on the basis of the progress it has made to date. As you talked about a strict application of the criteria laid down in 2002, I can now only hope that you will put your money where your mouth is. It is, in any case, clear that Turkey failed to meet the prescribed criteria yesterday, fails to meet them today and will fail to meet them in December too. You spoke a moment ago about the people of Europe whom this is all about. Well, it should be possible for those people to have their say about an essential, fundamental issue such as the accession of a non-European country to the European Union. A country that, in some 20 years, will not only boast the largest surface area within this Union, but also the highest population. A country whose accession would constitute a financial and social drain and would set in motion a new and massive wave of immigration. Are you convinced that this is backed by democratic support? It also remains to be seen whether we should give much credence to a Turkish Prime Minister who claims he will respect the lay state and democracy but who, a few years ago, was still making statements along the lines of ‘the mosques are our barracks, the minarets our bayonets, the domes our helmets and the believers our soldiers’. Indeed, we should think very carefully about how consistent this is with our European values. The European Constitution will prompt a referendum in various Member States. If we want to avoid the people in Europe turning away from the European Union even more, we must keep this referendum linked to the issue of the Turkish application."@en1
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