Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-03-08-Speech-2-559-000"
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"en.20110308.26.2-559-000"2
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".
Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much for this excellent debate. A multitude of arguments, both for and against, have been put forward with regard to both Turkey’s preparedness and the whole accession process. This, too, indicates the complexity of the situation and of how difficult the task of Mrs Oomen-Ruijten was. I believe that she did an excellent job in creating a report which reflects very well how difficult it is to evaluate the situation and Turkey’s preparedness.
There are, however, points on which we are in agreement, and in my opinion, this was also reflected in this debate. I believe that there is not only an agreement here between the parties but also on the part of both the Commission and the Council. The first of these points is that we need a European Turkey and it is in our interest to assist with this process. We are talking about a strategic partner here. I cannot stress enough how important it is to have a country with a small area in Europe as our friend. There is also no doubt that this is a process based on conditions, and that Turkey must comply with its obligations, all those it has undertaken, and in order to ensure that we can make progress in the negotiations, it must meet the benchmarks and expectations we have formulated. There is also no doubt that Turkey must strive for good neighbourhood relations. This is a matter which is not to be questioned in any accession negotiations.
We could see that there is a debate on how much progress there has been, and how many tasks Turkey has completed. I believe that we cannot call into question the achievements of the constitutional reform and that there has also been progress in minority affairs, for example, albeit partial. No one questioned the fact that there is still a very long way to go. It is enough to refer again to the issue of the freedom of the press, the situation of women or the operation of the justice system. If we are looking at how new life can be breathed into the accession negotiations, we should examine our scope of action. As mentioned by Commissioner Füle, there are indeed 13 chapters that remain open and we only managed to close one, while 16 have been frozen, where we cannot make any progress at the moment.
we can work on three chapters, namely, those on competition, public procurement, and social policy and employment. The best prepared of these is the chapter on competition, and much has been done during the Belgian Presidency as well in order to enable us to open the chapter, and the Commission is working very hard, with our maximum support, to open this chapter at least during the term of the Hungarian Presidency. Again, Turkey must meet a very large number of conditions to that end. I trust that there will be progress in this respect, and I truly do not wish to see for months on end that we are still unable to open another chapter.
Many have asked or indicated that progress in the matter of visas would be welcome. Let me be frank with you. The Hungarian Presidency would encourage the Commission to commence the dialogue, but we all know that in the Council meeting, the situation was not entirely clear in this regard, and a number of Member States have expressed their doubts. I believe, as does the Hungarian Presidency, that it would be in our interest to launch the dialogue. There have been several references to the freedom of religion and the persecution of Christians. The Council has received its share of criticism for not addressing this issue. Although this falls under the competence of Lady Ashton as the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Council, let me tell you that the issue was added to the agenda of the Foreign Affairs Council in January. At that time, there was no agreement, but the February Foreign Affairs Council did adopt a resolution in which the persecution of all religious minorities, and specifically Christians, was condemned, so the Council did actually address this matter.
Lastly, please allow me to also ask us all a question, because we have been talking about what Turkey has done, whether it has done enough and whether it is working properly towards accession. However, let us also think about all that depends on us. And if we want to be honest, we will see that Europe is not living a period of inclusion. We look at what is happening in North Africa, but if you look at what is going on within the European Union or in our even more immediate neighbourhood, you will see that Turkey is one of the five candidate countries, but there are also four others. To what extent can we support these processes? How prepared are we to conclude the accession negotiations with Croatia? How prepared are we to admit Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen Area? How prepared are we to uplift Europe’s hard-fated community, the Roma? Inclusion is on the agenda in a great variety of contexts.
Europe has now turned somewhat inward. Let me state this with a great deal of openness. There is an enlargement weariness. We must deal with our own public opinions, with how open we are with regard to these issues. I believe that maybe we should be thinking in a somewhat longer term. If we consider the long-term interests of the European Union, that is, to retain its attractiveness to both EU citizens and our immediate neighbours, whether it be Turkey or all the North African countries, I believe that we should bring back a more inclusive Europe within ourselves, naturally, with the proviso that this can by no means be unconditional, and that we must not save on the work that is expected from all candidate countries. It would, in my opinion, be a very grave moment for the European Union if Turkey lost interest in it."@en1
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