Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-12-14-Speech-2-033"

Predicate	Value (sorted: default)
rdf:type	lpv_eu:Speech2
dcterms:Date	"1999-12-14"^^xsd:date2
dcterms:Is Part Of	lp_eu:European Council/Finnish Presidency, Chechnya, OSCE2
dcterms:Language	"nl"^^xsd:language2
lpv:document identification number	"en.19991214.3.2-033"2
lpv:hasSubsequent	lp_eu:1999-12-14-Speech-2-0342
lpv:speaker	lp:Frank Vanhecke2
lpv:spokenAs	member_of_the_bureau; TGI (1999-07-22--2001-10-02)3 member; Delegation to the EU-Cyprus Joint Parliamentary Committee (1999-09-29--2002-01-14)3 unknown; Vlaams Blok (1999-07-20--2003-06-04)3 substitute; Committee on Regional Policy, Transport and Tourism (1999-07-22--2002-01-14)3 member; Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs (1999-07-21--2002-01-14)3
lpv:translated text	"Mr President, I fear that time will tell that the decision taken in Helsinki to accord Turkey candidate status for membership of the European Union is a political miscalculation that threatens to have dramatic repercussions for our Member States and for Turkey. Whilst acknowledging that Turkey must indeed be accorded respect as an important and culturally-rich nation and friendly neighbouring country with which we want to remain on the best of terms, Turkey still does not belong in Europe. That is only logical historically, geographically-speaking and from the point of view of common sense. We must pluck up the courage to tell this friendly neighbouring country as much. For historical, cultural, religious and political reasons, Turkey has never been part of European civilisation. Quite the opposite in fact. In Helsinki, the European countries bent over backwards yet again for American geo-political interests and for nothing else. Do I need to produce a map to remind you that only three percent of Turkey is on European soil? How can people undermine Europe in this way and strip it of its historical identity by continuing even to consider extending candidate status to a country that lies in a different part of the world. Finally, I would just like to say something about the logic of common sense, for a number of Member States are already struggling with a massive, almost unmanageable immigration problem. If Turkey accedes to the European Union then the problem will grow to gigantic proportions. This will result in an invasion of the kind that the French President Valérie Giscard d’Estaing once warned about. That is why my party, the Flemish Block, will continue to oppose any possibility of Turkey acceding to the European Union."@en1

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