Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-12-13-Speech-1-082"

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"Mr President, it is my belief that since the beginning of this debate the facts about democracy and the human rights situation have risked being twisted to suit the final objective sought, that is either the accession or non-accession of Turkey. One of the merits of Mr Eurlings’s report is precisely that it avoids doing this. The report contains a huge amount of very interesting and very precise information about the human rights situation and Mr Eurlings really cannot be accused of toning down certain points in order to strengthen the case for accession. This is a great achievement because the challenge was a considerable one. It seems to me that some Members nevertheless find themselves in an extremely paradoxical situation, because no one can deny that the prospect of Turkey’s accession is a powerful lever to encourage democratisation. Perhaps we have not made sufficient mention in our speeches of the packages of legislative reforms that have been adopted. It is right to say that things are not moving quickly enough on the ground. But to refuse accession today because the Copenhagen political criteria have not been met would be tantamount to interrupting a process of democratisation supposedly on the grounds of democratic values, which is completely illogical and paradoxical. I wish therefore to draw attention to the fact that this position is to some extent a hypocritical one. There is also an intermediate strategy which is to accumulate a large number of restrictions and go for accession while simultaneously backing away from it. Conditions are imposed and laid down and alternatives are sought. I think that Mr Brok is right, but I do not draw the same conclusions as he does: to set out a half-hearted accession strategy is to prepare for failure. What we need is an open, full and complete accession, which is also absolutely rigorous. If we work towards these two objectives we will, I believe, make a success of the multicultural Europe that we want to see created with Turkey’s accession."@en1

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