turkey in the eu
i've been wanting to post something on this issue for a long time, but never got the peace of mind to do so...
sometime in september the eurobarometer was out (a survey on the citizens of eu on their opinions on various matters). the short version of the greek survey can be found here. according to the survey, conducted among 1000 greek citizens, some 70% are against turkey and albania joining the eu in the mid-long term. that's an impressive percentage for any survey, and to be honest i wasn't expecting it.
now the deal is i don't know what that opinion is based on. is it based on fears? on traumatic experiences from our relations to our neighbours in the past (all our neighbours as a matter of fact)? detailed information or just cultural misunderstandings? gut feeling? or just the media?
ok so my opinion is that we don't have so much that devides us with our largest neighbour anymore, though there are still some issues to resolve on a diplomatic level. as for the traumatic past, i guess that if both sides are willing to move on, we will. the same happened with germany after WWII, when all the country was under occupation and we were on constant war status. i don't see any hostility between the two countries half a century later. that's been the result of work from both sides.
of course there's a lot to think about when you consider a big country with different realities entering the eu. i don't believe in exclusion because of cultural factors (i.e. religion). i think that the eu countries (especially with the latest enlargement) have a lot of things in common but also a lot of diversity within them. my opinion is basically that if the country fulfils the criteria in the future (social structures, economic criteria, consistent will to improve etc) and has issues resolved with current eu members (i.e. greece) it should be admitted as a full member.
some people say there's a lot to gain and others say there's a lot to lose from turkey's accession in the eu. the truth is, it can be either of the two, depending on the preparation of both sides. both turkey and the eu prepare for the accession. even if turkey is 100% ready to proceed in the future, if the eu hasn't regulated the job market for example, there will be chaos caused by a 70 mln country being added to it. and that's just one the examples. but what i mean to say is that, if both sides are prepared and are clear on the goals of this marriage, then good results will come out of it. that's my call. after all, if there were no benefits for any of the two sides, the issue wouldn't have been discussed and negotiated upon for so long.
now, of course there should be no discounts on criteria set for entering the eu club. the fact that the eu has proceeded in enlarging itself by 66,67% (10 countries entering a 15 cy club) shouldn't mean that accession is easy or can be done massively. and for the skeptics in my country lets not forget what kind of chaos greece was when we entered the eu in the beginning of the 80's and how many objections we faced. today we are a much better place than we used to be, with still a lot to work on. but we have been helped by the union and the accession process, and i believe we have offered to the eu as well.
once the decision has been made for turkey to be a candidate country, everyone needs to put their best effort not only to fulfill the criteria (it's too big an investment to just let it fail) but also to defy prejudice, resolve remaining issues and pursue objective and fair information flow to all sides.
posted by dimitris @ 11:34
2 comments
2 Comments:
I dont agree fully, though, sure it's a difficult issue. Never saw it from the "Greek" side of view, as Germany hasn't a troubled war and invasion realtionship with Turkey. But I believe religion, i.a. the islam, does play a role cos it inevitably influences the menatlity of a whole society. There are more than 2 million Turks living in Germany, quite often I hear of so-called honour killings. If that already happens here, what happens in the country itself. Furthermore, it's evident that Turkey is far away from accepting internationally recognized human rights. So, why shall they be allowed to join the EU? Surely, their economy would be profiting from a EU membership, but it will further weaken the Western economies. But actually, the main reason is that there are hardly any commonalities between the current EU members and Turkey. I have learned that mentality should never be neglected.
i believe that religion does differentiate the mentality of the people. but on the other hand it's not exactly what unites nations. if you could say a few elements points that greece and finland have in common, it wouldn't be mentality, it wouldn't be religion either. in the end of the day in my view the eu is not so much a cultural union, as there is no real political union, especially now that the constitution treaty has been suspended indefinitely.
now of course the things you said are within the boundaries of social structures that i mentioned in my original posting. and i agree that things like that have to be taken under consideration for any country in the evaluation of the candidate country criteria. human rights recognition and bilateral agreements as well. no discounts to criteria for any candidate. but once the candidacy has been decided, all of this needs to be worked on and see if the country makes the list or not.
opinions, anyone?
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