Verhofstadt: EU Needs Turkey

Verhofstadt, one of the leading candidates for the E.C. Presidency, began by complimenting the reform programs of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government. The Belgium Prime Minister then criticized the Christian Democrats’ campaign against Turkey during the pre-election period of the European Parliament. "Nobody should invent new rules for Turkey," Verhofstadt declared.

Verhofstadt touched upon the subject of Fehriye Erdal, who is accused of killing one of the most prominent businessman in Turkey, Ozdemir Sabanci. Verhofstadt said that while Erdal should be punished for her actions, the decision about her rests solely with the court. "At the moment, the issue between us and Turkey is whether she [Erdal] should be brought to trial in Belgium or in Turkey," he said. Verhofstadt then added that he could empathize with the victim’s family.

Verhofstadt also talked about the upcoming E.C. progress report on Turkey, which will be released in October. "I hope that the report will be positive because the reforms Erdogan’s government is making are very important. If the report is positive, we should take the decision to start the negotiations immediately. Because we, as the E.U. leaders, said in Copenhagen that we should start the negotiations without any delay if the reports are positive.

"I personally think that the expanding Europe needs Turkey. We need a Turkey that fulfilled the conditions during the membership negotiations. According to me, Istanbul is Europe. Moreover, Turkey’s membership is very important geo-strategically. When Turkey becomes ready for membership, it will set an example of modernization for entire region. Erdogan and Gul [Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister] want to put all of their effort behind modernizing and changing their country."

‘The Cypriot Greeks do not have veto power’

Verhofstadt thinks that if European leaders take up the decision to start negotiations with Turkey during the December summit, Cypriot Greeks will not have the power to veto such a decision. He repeatedly pointed out Turkey’s positive attitude with regard to Cyprus and said, "We did not put forward the unification of the island as a condition for Greek Cypriot accession to EU. Now we cannot reverse this and say, ‘we will not start negotiations with Turkey because of problems on the island;’ Especially not after Turkey showed show much positive effort to resolve the problem." The Belgian Prime Minister finished by saying that with the Cyprus Package prepared by E.C. the Turkish side in Cyprus would be saved from isolation.