Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-02-10-Speech-3-045"
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"en.20100210.8.3-045"2
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"Mr President, first of all, I would like to say that I am rather surprised that, of all people, Mr Cashman from the United Kingdom, who I hold in great esteem, should remind us that a country which joins the European Union must become involved in every aspect of the Union and cannot take an à la carte approach. That seems rather strange to me.
However, I would like to discuss the subject of Turkey. Other speakers have said that Turkey is a society in motion and that is true. However, for the sake of honesty, we must explain that this is not a linear movement towards European values. Turkey is moving forwards and backwards. Let us take the example of the armed forces. We are, of course, pleased about the decree that prevents the armed forces from intervening without political authorisation. This is a good thing. However, the judgment of the constitutional court also makes up another part of the picture and this prevents members of the armed forces from being brought before civilian courts. That, of course, is not a good thing.
If we look at the example of freedom of speech and opinion, it is true that there is a lively debate taking place on a number of topics which were previously taboo, including the rights of minorities and sexual minorities, Mr Cashman. We think that is very good. However, at the same time, there is the ban on YouTube and there are legal provisions which create a framework that generates legal uncertainty about the question of freedom of speech and opinion, which is particularly important to the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. There is also the ‘private war’ against the Doğan group. All of this is very unfortunate.
Another example is that of the role of women. Of course, it is good that so-called honour killings, which are a barbaric crime, are being discussed in the media, but do we really believe that Turkish society is moving in a linear fashion towards adopting European values on equality? I do not think that this is the case.
I would also like to say something about what Mr Howitt has said. It is true that we have a process – the accession negotiations – which we must follow in good faith. However, this is not an automatic process. During this process, we are not only responsible for the accession candidate. Our primary responsibility is to the European Union. Our enlargement policy must be credible and we need to take an honest and credible approach to the accession candidates. I must say that I sometimes find it disturbing that there is an alliance between the Greens, who want a strong Europe and enlargement as soon as possible, and Members such as Mr van Orden, who want to bring in new countries as quickly as possible in order to weaken the European Union. This seems to me very strange.
There is an accession perspective, but accession will only come about when all the criteria have been met."@en1
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