Membership talks open with Turkey (Andrew Duff MEP)

Andrew Duff MEP <info@andrewduffmep.org.uk>

Membership talks open with Turkey

October 7, 2005 6:00 AM
By Andrew Duff in East Anglian Daily Times

Great history is made in mundane ways. After thirty hours of hard pounding the Council of Ministers of the European Union agreed this week to stick to its earlier agreement in principle to open membership negotiations with Turkey. This is a remarkably good decision for a Union which is badly divided over its future spending plans and whose constitutional project is stalled. It is also a bold one, when public opinion in Europe seems far from enthusiastic about the recent round of enlargement, let alone a future one. But the European Union has rightly decided to think strategically.

The prospective membership of Turkey will help to change the atmosphere surrounding the fag ends of two of the bitterest conflicts of the twentieth century: Cyprus and the Balkans. In both places, a significant Muslim minority is in danger of being oppressed by Orthodox Christians. Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayip Erdogan was right to have warned his EU colleagues that 'Europe can either become a global actor or a Christian club'. Turkey can be a great bridge builder between Christianity and Islam, and between Europe and the Levant. Turkey's size and power, as well as its geography, will force the EU to develop rapidly a serious common foreign, security and defence policy.

Turkey will also be good for our economy. Its population is falling less fast than ours, and is much younger. It will be a useful source of skilled labour over the next fifty years, even as the famous Polish plumber is confined to his geriatric home. Anyone who has wandered the alleys of the Istanbul bazaar will know perfectly well what good salesman Turks are. The Turkish economy is growing by more than 8 per cent a year compared to our own growth rate of less than 2 per cent. It will not be long before 70 million Turks are contributing as producers and consumers to Europe's competitivity.

The process of accession will take at least ten years. Both Turkey and the European Union promise to be very different places then and, one hopes, natural and durable partners.

Andrew Duff is the Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament for the East of England and Vice-President of the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee. www.andrewduffmep.org.