Turkish entry would be end of old EU
By Paul Taylor
Dawn, Pakistan
Dec 7 2004
BRUSSELS: Where does Europe end and should the European Union go
on expanding indefinitely? That is one key argument of opponents
of Turkey’s bid to win agreement next week to open European Union
membership talks.
While Turkey’s supporters see an opportunity to extend the EU’s mantle
of stability and prosperity to a dynamic Muslim democracy and Nato
ally, adversaries fear the 25-nation grouping will over-extend itself
and choke on such a giant morsel.
They see a precedent that will change the EU from a close-knit
community into an unwieldy “regional United Nations” sprawling into
central Asia and North Africa. If the EU says “yes” to Turkey, how
could it say “no” to Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia and eventually
Russia and Morocco, the critics ask.
“Turkey is an Asian country with a small bridgehead in Europe, with
the elite looking to Europe … but the vast majority rooted in Asia,”
former EU farm chief Franz Fischler said in a letter to his colleagues
this year.
The EU would be unable to sustain its two main spending policies,
agricultural support and regional development aid, even if Turkish
membership were phased in over a decade, and it would open “a geo
strategic Pandora’s box”, the Austrian warned.
The man who drafted the EU constitution, former French President
Valery Giscard d’Estaing, was even more blunt. Turkey was not
geographically or culturally European, and its accession would be
“the end of the European Union”, Giscard told the French daily Le
Monde in November 2002.
Furthermore, those pushing Turkish membership most strongly were the
enemies of European integration, Giscard asserted – a reference to
Britain and the United States. Rising French political star Nicolas
Sarkozy, leader of the ruling UMP party, last month rejected Turkish
entry and said the indefinite expansion of the EU was “an American
vision”.
DIFFERENT EUROPE: Turkish accession in a decade or so would certainly
create a very different EU, shifting the balance of power still
further away from its original Franco-German axis – hence French alarm.
By the time it joined, Turkey would be the most populous nation
in the EU, overtaking Germany’s 80 million. That would give it the
most voting power under the largely population-based voting system
established by the constitution, and the biggest block of seats in
the European Parliament.
The EU would no longer be able to afford to subsidise farmers and poor
regions on the current scale. To some critics, notably in France,
that would reduce it to a vast free trade area with little or no
redistribution of wealth.
Countries such as Britain and Sweden make little secret of their
delight at such a prospect. Turkey’s supporters argue that the EU is
already evolving with the admission of 10 mainly poor east European
countries this year, and its farm and regional policies will have to
change anyway due to world trade talks and budget constraints.
They also argue that the accession of a country with a surplus of
eager young workers could boost Europe’s dwindling, ageing workforce
and help defuse a looming pensions crisis.
But European Commission economists say an influx of Turkish labour,
likely to be long delayed by transition arrangements, would do little
to ease the pensions shortfall.
Then there is the cultural argument – a euphemism for religion in
some eyes, or for a history of enmity in others. Dutch former EU
commissioner Frits Bolkestein articulated an often unspoken fear of
Europe being overrun by Islam.
In a speech in September, he suggested that Ankara’s accesion would
reverse the 1683 defeat of the Turks at the gates of Vienna, which
marked the limit of the westward expansion of the Ottoman empire
in Europe.
Jean-Louis Bour langes, a centre-right French member of the European
Parliament and leading European federalist, said the EU’s extension
into eastern Europe was a natural reunification with “the kidnapped
east”. But admitting Turkey would be quite different.
“(Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip) Erdogan says the EU should be
a crossroads of civilizations. We consider it is the home of a
civilization. European identity shouldn’t be a department store,”
Bourlanges said.