Most French want Turkey in EU: poll

Fifty-one percent of the 951 people polled said they would like to see Turkey join the EU "in a few years" while 39 percent said they opposed the country’s accession.

The head of French President Jacques Chirac’s centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), former premier Alain Juppe, said earlier this month that countries such as Turkey "have no business joining (the bloc) otherwise it will be diluted."

The position followed a highly critical evaluation of Turkey’s progress towards EU entry conditions adopted by the European parliament on April 1.

EU leaders will assess Turkey’s progress in December before deciding whether to open accession talks with the country, the only membership hopeful so far denied a seat at the negotiating table.

Although few are willing to predict the contents of that report, there appears little support by other European leaders for the hardline French position.