STAR- Columnist Zeynep Gurcanlý comments on the outcome of last week’s EU summit in Barcelona. A summary of his column is as follows:
Nobody in Turkey thinks that our public’s support for EU membership will fall below 70%,’ said Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit during the Barcelona summit last week. Speaking both to European leaders and the Turkish public opinion, he said, ‘Turkey is a democratic country. There are many discussions going on in Turkey right now but Turkey will not, and can not, abandon the EU.’ Not satisfied with mere words, Ecevit also opened the door to a very important project in terms of integration with the EU, that is, the Istanbul-Dedeagac natural gas pipeline. Ecevit talked about this project during the opening day of the summit, and Greece gave its reply the very next day. Prime Minister Costas Simitis said that Greek Development Minister Akis Cohacopulos would go to Ankara and sign a preliminary agreement next week. This project is very important for Turkey’s EU membership as well. One of the biggest problems looming for the EU in the future is its energy needs. The European leaders do not want to be dependent on ‘a single source,’ that is, on Russia, and so are looking for ways to increase the energy supply to the continent. Considering the Turkish-Greek line together with the natural gas pipeline crossing the Caspian and the Turkish-Iranian natural gas pipeline projects, this project’s importance for Europe is more and more evident, and the line will make Turkey an inseparable part of Europe. This was not the only good news from the Barcelona summit. The second piece concerns the proposed European army. The EU leaders discussed the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP) after Ecevit left Barcelona. Greece, which had objected to a Turkish-EU compromise on the ESDP, became isolated in its stance. Even the other European leaders criticized Grace somewhat harshly. Jose Maria Aznar, the prime minister of EU President Spain, complained that the EU ‘cannot move even one step forward’ due to Greece’s obstructionism. He gave the example of the international peacekeeping force that was established in Afghanistan within a very short period of time, and complained that Europe cannot even send soldiers to Macedonia under its very nose. Greece openly said, ‘All 14 EU member countries support the compromise that was reached concerning Turkey and the ESDP.’ The final notes of the Barcelona Summit were a kind of message to my fellow citizens who put forward the unproductive concept of nationalism and object to Turkey’s joining the EU. In short, the news from the Barcelona summit to Turkey was extremely positive. The European leaders also took several other important decisions in terms of the EU’s future during the sessions they held among themselves. Although these decisions may seem to be mere ‘details,’ all of them in fact were measures to increase ordinary Europeans’ standard of living and their level of education and culture.
SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION