BY SEREF OGUZ
STAR- Dec. 17, 2004 is the next key date for Turkey’s European Union membership bid. I wonder if we can reflect our ambitions for EU membership in our homework before this date. Considering the leaked draft statement for the Dec. 17 EU summit, we can see that the EU’s conditions will focus not on the economy, but on politics. It seems almost certain that recognizing Greek Cyprus will be a sine qua non. Even if our membership talks begin, the EU can find pretexts to force us to do things. Even if we recognize Greek Cyprus and implement all the necessary reforms, our membership process might be delayed on the grounds that we’ve violated human rights. This means that maybe we can get a date for membership talks on Dec. 17, but Europe won’t forget and will always want something else. Our responses to these new demands will show the difference between doing and not doing our homework. Some here want our EU membership come what may, whereas others are really weighing the pros and cons. Rather than the rabid pro- and anti-EU fanatics, these people’s efforts will be key.
We should make clear what we should and shouldn’t do before the summit. We should ask ourselves what the EU Council wants and what sort of things are important for it, because it has the power to set a date for our membership negotiations. The Achilles’ heel of this process will be our efforts over the next decade. Considering the conditions about quality of life and the economy which the EU put forth, it’s clear we can’t reject them. We might become an EU member, or not. This might be a political decision. However, many standards in the process of harmonization are necessary anyway. Who wouldn’t want a better administration, a more transparent government, and a stronger financial structure? What’s strange is that others force us to reach for high standards of living which we already have to reach. Maybe if the EU hadn’t forced us, it would take us years to reach these standards. From this perspective, even if we can’t become an EU member, our homework on the path to membership will be useful. However, I’m frightened that we might get a date on Dec. 17 but might not do anything before that date. I hope we won’t so unreasonable.