The start of negotiations towards a Turkish EU membership is scheduled for tomorrow, Monday, 2 October 2005. The Austrian government is stalling these talks, insisting on alternative outcomes to the proposed full membership to be included in the official conditions for negotiations with Turkey. Even though I am opposed to Turkey becoming a full member of the EU, the way the Austrian government is handling the affair is not the best way to do it.
First of all, let me make clear that I am not an expert on these matters, and I am sure there are reasonable arguments for a Turkish EU membership, most likely economic issues. But I do object to a Turkish membership for the following reasons:
- According to the BBC, polls show that “not one EU coutry has a majority of people in favor of Turkey’s attempts to enter the bloc.”
- Calling Turkey a “European country” geographically is quite laughable considering where most of its landmass lies.
- Acknowledging the possibility of being called rasist (which anyone knowing me would refute), the Turkish mentality and lifestyle is in stark contrast with overall European attitudes (just ask those in Austria or Germany living with or nearby large congregations of Turkish people).
- Having a border with Iraq, and therefore with one of the world’s current hot spots of political instability and terrorism, is not something the EU should aspire to (and I doubt that will have changed significantly by 2015, the earliest point of Turkish entry into the EU).
- A country that needs to fulfil such a long list of reforms to be able to enter into EU membership at all cannot and should not be trusted with protecting the union’s outward borders to the middle east.
Therefore, in my eyes, Austria’s government is perfectly right to demand the possibility of an outcome other than a full membership of Turkey to be acknowledged. Not too long ago, after the negative EU constitution polls in France and the Netherlands, other EU countries shared Austria’s cautious stance on further EU enlargement. Since then, they have all backed down when it comes to Turkish membership negotiations.
Unfortunately, Austria has so far signed all the agreements for the start of negotiations, and has only recently come up with those new demands of the mutual target of full membership being erased from the official conditions. If Austria’s government really does keep that new demand and thereby makes the start of negotiations tomorrow impossible, it will render itself an unreliable EU member not sticking to its promises. It would once again be the outcast within the union, as it was the case after the 2000 elections, where sanctions were placed against Austria.
Therefore, as much as I dislike the possibility of a full Turkish EU membership, Austria should not take the risk of being isolated once again. It is in the course of the membership negotiations to follow the next ten years that a stance against full membership can and should be taken, and the demands for Turkish reforms should be precise and unconditional. Only then can Austria keep its integrity while voicing its legitimate concerns.
