Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-28-Speech-3-045"
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"en.20050928.3.3-045"2
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"Mr President, the Socialist Group in the European Parliament has always supported opening negotiations with Turkey, with the clear prospect of its accession to the European Union. At this point, however, I should like to say to Mr Erdogan: frankly, you did not help us with your unilateral declarations when the Ankara protocol was signed. As you know, there are three groups in this Parliament, as has been seen clearly today.
There are those who let it be clearly known that they do not want anything to do with Turkey and who have even been gleefully making funeral preparations.
There is a second group: those who resign themselves to a marriage of convenience by telling themselves that, after all, Turkey is a great country, it is a crossroads for energy resources, it has water, it is a friend of the United States and it behaved correctly during the Iraq war by not interfering in events and that, when all is said and done, there still remain 71 opportunities for each country to use its veto during the negotiations.
Finally, there is a third group, and this third group, to which I myself belong, believes in this project but believes in it as a real political project, opening the way to a tolerant, pluralist Europe that is accepting of diversity. This is not a funeral. Instead, this huge project, which is a tremendous gamble about which the voters will require some convincing, involves two aspects.
The first is that we will not compromise, not on Cyprus, not on the Armenian issue, not on the rights of the Kurdish people and not on women’s rights. What we want is a proper marriage in which the parties concerned can speak their minds. We are adamant in wanting democracy of this kind.
Yet, there is a second aspect, which is even more difficult to get right. Will we – by whom I mean Europe – be able to change without betraying our social model? In welcoming Turkey, will we be able at the present time not only to enhance our institutions and to vote in favour of the Constitutional Treaty but also to show solidarity with this country which, large though it is, is nonetheless poor? That is a question that remains open. However, if we open the negotiations, we must not forget that, in a marriage, there are two partners and that each of them bears a responsibility."@en1
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