Italy is Divided Over Turkey’s EU membership

Speaking for the North Union Party, one of the coalition government partners signing the proposal, Guido Giuseppe Rossi said, "Our party has always had doubts about Turkey’s accession to the EU," and stated that it was necessary to think seriously about the determination of the EU borders. Alessandro Ce De, who is the Parliament Group Chairman of the North Union Party, said yesterday: "The entrance of Turkey to the EU may form a negative result over the cultural model of Europe." The opposition parties, PRC and the Greens, which presented contrary proposals to the EU membership of Turkey, advocated the opinion that "Turkey has to accept that it didn’t fulfill the Copenhagen Criteria in either politics or economic fields".

Frattini: We will try for Turkey

While announcing the term presidency program, Italy Foreign Affairs Minister Franca Frattini said that Turkey was a country that deserved to be helped. Stating that the Italian government is to insist Ankara to continue with the reforms, Frattini added they would try for a date to be given to Turkey in order to start full membership negotiations.

Selcuk Gultasli / Brussels / BELGIUM