YOK And The EU

BY YILMAZ OZTUNA
TURKIYE- As I was writing this column, everybody was talking about the Higher Board of Education (YOK) bill. Everyone was wondering what the government would do. The YOK bill will be passed by the Parliament, but it’s not likely to be signed at the Presidential Palace or approved by the Constitutional Court. So did the government do all this in order to say, ‘We did our best’? The government should avoid such political stances, as they might also damage our relations with the European Union. The report on our country Brussels will start to write in September shouldn’t say that we’re contradicting the Copenhagen criteria. Actually the prime ministers of 25 EU member states (and for France, the president) will decide on whether we get a date for EU membership negotiations, but they will depend heavily on the report in reaching their decision.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently said that there are alternatives to the EU. If we can’t start negotiations with the EU immediately, we’ll have to review these alternatives. However, this would be hard for both for us and the EU. Closer cooperation with the US and a possible future request to join the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) would top this list of alternatives. The ‘wise men’ of the continent should consider how this would influence Europe. However, our own ‘wise men’ should avoid situations that might cast a shadow on our relations with Europe. Any development threatening our democracy could keep us outside the EU. Neither the YOK bill nor any other should take precedence over the EU.