Verheugen: EU Must Not Slam Door on Turkey

EU leaders are to decide in December whether the sprawling Muslim state of 70 million has made sufficient progress on political reforms and human rights to begin accession negotiations — five years after it won candidate status.

Verheugen said the decision must fairly reflect Turkey’s achievements and should not be influenced by mounting opposition among political elites and public opinion in some EU states to admitting the country to the bloc.

Some detractors fear that if present population trends go on, Turkey in 15 years’ time would be the biggest country in the EU and, under the new constitution, have the greatest number of votes in key decision-making after economic powerhouse Germany.

"If you take away the European perspective from Turkey, you stop effectively the process of democratization in the country," he told a seminar on enlargement staged by the independent pro-EU think-tank, Friends of Europe.

"In the long run you will be responsible for the loss of stability and predictability of that strategically important country," he said.

France’s governing conservative UMP party and Germany’s opposition center-right Christian Democrats oppose Turkish membership.

French President Jacques Chirac has said talks with Turkey, if they were opened, would be tough and very long.

The executive European Commission will issue a key report in October on whether Turkey is ready to start accession talks on the basis of the so-called Copenhagen criteria on human rights, the rule of law, free elections and free market.

Verheugen praised Turkey’s progress, saying the country had displayed "very impressive dynamism in modernization, democratization and liberalization."

Verheugen said Turkey’s membership bid must not be rejected for political reasons if the country meets the entry criteria.

"Relations between Western democracies and the Islamic world…will be the most important question of the 21st century. Turkey can make a difference," he said.

Verheugen reiterated that Bulgaria and Romania were on track to become the next countries to join the EU in 2007 after 10 mostly east European countries entered the bloc on May 1 and accession talks with Croatia would begin very soon.

He said EU membership was not on the agenda for other countries such as Ukraine, Moldova or Belarus. "But we cannot tell them: ‘You’ll never make it’," he said. /Reuters