Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-28-Speech-3-013"
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"en.20050928.3.3-013"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, listening attentively to Mr Poettering, there is only one conclusion to which one can come, and that is that it would be better if he were to say that he and his group do not want Turkey as a full member of the European Union. That is the message contained in his speech, so let him say so, rather than pussyfooting around the issue. If he does not want Turkey to be a full member of the European Union, then let him say so. His group’s website includes pages full of some of its members saying that very thing. That is the point at issue and that is what he is fighting shy of.
Let me tell you what our group wants. It has been decided by the Heads of State or Government, 18 of whom are Mr Poettering’s political allies, that 3 October is to be the day on which the accession negotiations are to be kicked off; they will take between ten and fifteen years and are not a free ride, for their conditions have been proposed by the Commission and defined by the Council, and it is these that we are discussing today.
Let me name a couple of conditions that are indispensable. If Turkey wants to join the European Union, there are fundamental conditions with which it must comply. One thing on which we do agree is that a country cannot seek membership of the European Union while not recognising one of its Member States; that is impossible. We therefore argue that the commencement of negotiations cannot be conditional upon recognition, but recognition must be forthcoming at some point during their course. We also want to make it clear that we cannot wait until the end of a fifteen-year process for it; it must happen at once, at some point in the first or second year, and if the protocol to which Mr Brok referred is not put into effect, which means that Cyprus is not recognised, then the accession negotiations will have to be suspended.
Delighted though I am that Mr Poettering agrees with us about this, I ask the House to hold the applause a moment or two longer, for there is more to come. If you want to enlarge the European Union, you have to make it fit for enlargement. That is something else on which we agree, and this joint resolution says so. If Mr Poettering wants to be better understood, he will have to be very precise in the language he uses.
If the European Union does not have the capacity to cope with Turkey’s accession, then it cannot cope with Croatia’s either. I can tell Mr Poettering what his group, by its policy, is saying: it is saying that it does not want Turkey because Turkey is distant and Muslim, but that Croatia is acceptable on the grounds of being Catholic, conservative and close at hand. That is what his group’s policy adds up to: hypocrisy and nothing more! It is not acceptable to string a candidate country along for 40 years with promises of EU membership; it is not acceptable to demand of such a country that it put itself through processes of transformation that it has already undergone. Under no conservative government – whether that of Mrs Çiller or that of Mr Poettering’s great mate Mr Yilmaz – has Turkey made such progress towards democracy as it has done under Mr Erdoğan.
So let me spell out the fact that the increase in security that could result from Turkey’s full membership is not to be underestimated. We cannot, however – and I include my own group in this – be naive and say that it can join tomorrow. Its accession is dependent on conditions, and those conditions apply to both parties. Turkey must comply with them, and so must the European Union. This debate could do with a bit more honesty. If you find Turkey unacceptable, then you should say so openly. We want to give it the chance, but we do not know whether its accession will, at the end of the day, be possible, for there are reforms to be implemented by both countries, by both parties.
You in particular should be more reticent, Mr Langen. I have a clear recollection of December 1995, when this House’s most eloquent advocate of accession was none other than your good self, and that makes you one of our leading hypocrites. Let me tell you, I have a good memory, and shouting the odds does nothing to make your arguments less false. I ask Members to give some thought to the fact that the European Parliament ..."@en1
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"(Heckling by Mr Langen)"1
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