Comments on: Turkey recommended for EU accession talks

By: DoDo

DoDo — Sun, 10 Oct 2004 07:18:29 +0000

“Nothing will happen anyway because the French are against the whole idea of Turkey’s membership.”

Um, no, the French won’t veto the beginning of talks. Chirac will give that much to Schr?der.

Instead, the French Right is calling for a plebiscite on Turkish membership. Given that Turkish membership is at least ten years away, neither this government nor the current public sentiment is assured to prevail in such a plebiscite.

By: RSN

RSN — Sun, 10 Oct 2004 03:56:39 +0000

Nothing will happen anyway because the French are against the whole idea of Turkey’s membership.

By: DoDo

DoDo — Thu, 07 Oct 2004 20:16:08 +0000

I fully agree with his sentiments, but not the reasoning behind them

By: Edward

Edward — Thu, 07 Oct 2004 13:39:21 +0000

One of the issues which is being raised is that of freedom of movement for Turkish workers at some date in the future. The UK – as it did in the case of citizens of the recent accession countries – seems to be taking a different line from the rest. According to the Guardian yesterday Denis MacShane, the minister for Europe, is taking the line that it is unacceptable to consider a permanent restriction on the free movement of Turkish workers when entry negotiations, which may well last until 2015 or later, have not even begun.

“I would really cross that bridge when we get to it,” he said, urging that Turkey be allowed to open accession talks “in good faith and on the same basis as any other country”.

“By 2020 Europe’s ageing population may be such that people will want young, educated Turks to work in the rest of the EU … the Turkey which joins then will be a very different country and the process of the entry negotiations should promote as radical a reform process as that initiated by Ataturk.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/eu/story/0,7369,1320739,00.html

I really fully agree with his sentiments, and the reasoning behind them. I think this is going to be a very important issue.

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 06 Oct 2004 23:33:24 +0000

I’ve added in a link to the Commission’s website, but the HTML link there doesn’t seem to be working, so I’ve pasted the whole text of Prodi’s speech in the ‘continue reading’ section.

By: Young Fogey

Young Fogey — Wed, 06 Oct 2004 21:57:30 +0000

Can anyone find the full text of the report? The link on the Commission website is broken, at least in the English version.

Right – I’m off to have a few rakis to celebrate.