Chirac says French will vote on Turkey

Bowing to political pressure for French people to have a say on Turkey, Chirac said he had urged the government to propose changes to France’s constitution so that referendums have to be held on any other future enlargement of the 25-member bloc.

However, France will not hold a referendum on whether Romania, Bulgaria or Croatia should join the EU, the president said, because negotiations for those countries are already under way.

His call is likely to alarm Ankara and could cause concern among all prospective EU members. "Let me reassure you right away — the French people will have their say," Chirac told a news conference following talks with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in Strasbourg in eastern France.

"May it be the best," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in Ankara, when asked to comment on Chirac statement.

A referendum is unlikely for more than a decade. But an opinion poll this week showed 56 percent of French people oppose Turkey’s immediate entry due to fears on jobs and concerns about letting in a mainly Muslim country that links Europe to Asia.

Chirac’s ruling conservative party has also opposed Ankara’s candidacy and called for a referendum, even though the president supports Turkey’s accession.

Chirac’s promises of a public vote are intended to prevent voters’ concerns over Turkey clouding a referendum next year on the EU constitution and increasing the chances of France rejecting the treaty — a vote which could torpedo it.

Chirac gave no details of the changes he wanted in France’s constitution, apart from saying votes on future EU enlargement should be put to a public vote.

"It would be compulsory to ask the French people via a referendum on this enlargement or any other possible enlargements, and not via the parliamentary process," he said,

Words of support
Both Chirac and Schroeder said at the conference that they would like to see Turkey join the EU.

The country’s membership "would be a very good thing … because it would "establish a link between European and nonfundamentalist Islamic values," Schroeder said.

Chirac said he and Schroeder agreed that Turkey had made a lot of progress by introducing democratic and economic reforms but had not yet fulfilled all the terms for entry.

"We have an interest in having Turkey with us," Chirac said. "It creates a prospect of democracy and peace taking root on the whole of the European continent … so that we avoid the mistakes and violence of the past."

Membership of Turkey, located at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, would stretch the EU’s borders to Syria and Iraq — a fact that some opponents say moves Europe too close to the unstable Middle East.

The European Commission is expected to recommend in a report on Wednesday that the EU opens entry talks with Turkey. A final decision will be taken when EU leaders meet in December and the accession talks would be expected to last for several years.

There was no referendum in France before the EU expanded to 25 members in May. French people are concerned that France’s influence in the EU has been diluted by enlargement and that the entry of a country of 71 million people will water it down more.

France’s foreign and finance ministers, both of whom are members of Chirac’s Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party, have in the past few days proposed holding a referendum on Turkey’s entry when the time comes.

There is some hope for Turkey. This week’s poll showed 63 percent of French could one day foresee Turkey’s accession.

Chirac did not make clear whether he wanted changes made to France’s constitution in time for a further enlargement expected to take in Romania and Bulgaria in 2007. Croatia is expected to join the bloc soon after Romania and Bulgaria.