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Old 16-10-2004, 14:48   #56
simon simon is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: England
Posts: 401

I don't think Turkey should be admitted to the European Union unless it changes completely, but it would be a big mistake to reject them now. It would just confirm all the negative opinions that Muslims have about Europe. I'm pleased that they've said that Turkey and other post-2004 will have to face much tougher assessments of actual implementation of the policies Europe insists on than the new ten did. I'm still very unhappy that the Czech Republic and Slovakia were admitted when they discriminate so much against Gypsies. But if they were really serious about it, they wouldn't have given Romania a clean bill of health for entry in 2007 - there are still problems with treatment of Gypsies, torture and lack of child protection. All this talk that it will be 10 or 15 years before Turkey is admitted, that's allowing us to spin out indefinitely negotiations with Turkey. But maybe it's just a ruse and then they want to wrap up the negotiations much faster.

I'm certainly not a Eurofederalist, in fact I opposed Maastricht (although fortunately it turned out to be nothing like as federalist in practice as it looked on paper) and the Euro. But I think there's a difference between countries like Britain, Denmark and Sweden, which are sceptical about the Eurofederalist project, and Turkey. Its voting weight would always be on the conservative side and make it almost impossible to enact any progressive measures.
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