Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-12-13-Speech-1-093"
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"en.20041213.10.1-093"2
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"Mr President, this week is undoubtedly an historically important one for the broader development of the European Union. The European Parliament will vote on whether it supports the opening of accession talks between Turkey and the EU. Leaders of the 25 governments of the European Union meeting in Brussels later this week will formally give the go-ahead – or not – to accession negotiations between the European Union and the Turkish Government.
Let us not underestimate the magnitude of this decision. There is no acceptable middle ground when it comes to the issue of membership of the European Union. A country is either a member of the European Union or it is not. This is the crux of the matter. I believe that a country seeking to join the European Union must clearly comply with all aspects of the Copenhagen criteria.
One must recall that the European Commission carried out an evaluation report on the progress that Turkey has made in its efforts to join the European Union. In this report last October the Commission stated that the Turkish Government had brought forward a significant package of proposals this year which included the following: the abolition of State Security Courts, which would ensure that civil-military relations are brought into line with EU standards, the strengthening of the freedom of the press, the introduction of a constitutional clause on gender equality, and removal of all references to the death penalty. In the last election my own party had a slogan which stated: 'A lot done, more to do'. I believe that this is the case here. More needs to be done, but a lot has been done and we must recognise that.
I support the terms of the today's report which states that the European Council should vote for accession negotiations with Turkey to begin without delay and the objective of these negotiations is Turkey's EU membership. But there is also a realisation that further substantial political reforms are going to have to take place in Turkey before final accession negotiations can conclude.
It was intimated earlier in this debate that one of the reasons why Turkey should be kept out of the European Union is because Turkish people are not Christian. Surely that flies in the face of the very thing that Christianity stands for. Christianity is about being open and welcoming to people. I believe that we should be open and welcoming and let these negotiations begin."@en1
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