EU STORM

The leaders of 25 countries – the 15 EU members and 10 soon-to-be members – proved unable to reach an agreement at the summit on how post-enlargement decisions would be made. Poland and Spain’s stubbornness proved particularly problematic. Consequently, for the time being, the draft constitution prepared by Valery Giscard d’Estating is a dead duck. Even if a solution is eventually reached, the weekend failure proved three things:

* First, the EU, which admits new members without guaranteeing its internal mechanisms, will face many difficulties in the future.

* Second, this difficulty will inevitably will bring about a “Europe of peoples” made up of capital cities which have different speeds of development.

* Third, except for the EU’s inner circle, this process could move Europe, which cannot go further than nation-states, towards being only a free trade association.

This state of affairs is in Turkey’s interest, and if Ankara plays its cards right, then our membership bid will succeed, but I’ll cover this subject in a later column.

Now let’s talk about Turkey and the tempest in a teapot. The summit’s declaration referred to the ‘southeast.’ Nor was this the first time. In May 1999 the Prime Minister Ecevit said that Turkey would boost its efforts to complete the reforms in the country, including the southeast.

The declaration released on Saturday praised developments in Turkey but also demanded that ‘Ankara exert new efforts to continue to adjust relations between Turkey’s military and civil circles according to European norms … and [also improve] cultural rights in the southeast.’ Is the ‘southeast’ mentioned here any different from Ecevit’s?

We must work to correct our mistakes instead of stirring a tempest in a teapot.”