Getting To Know The E.U.

MILLIYET- Columnist Sami Kohen writes on the recent discussions over Turkey’s membership bid to the EU and the requests of the Union. A summary of his column is as follows:
It is becoming increasingly clear that a majority of those speaking at the panels or similar meetings held on Turkey’s membership bid to the EU lack certain basic information. To be frank, we can say that even some politicians lack knowledge on the issue. That is why the evaluations regarding the importance of EU membership for Turkey cannot go any further than stereotypical opinions. In fact, in many member and candidate countries, the people do not have much idea about the EU. Naturally, this doesn’t amount to much in themember countries. We cannot say that it is important for Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland, which are all very close to full membership. They have already made their decision and all the arrangements. For Turkey, which does not even have a date set for the beginning of accession negotiations, the situation is rather different. In Turkey, the fulfilment of certain political criteria is being discussed. During these discussions, the sides are positioning their arguments either for or against the EU. Therefore we have to know the EU well and have basic information regarding the organization. The Copenhagen criteria are basic conditions every candidate state has to comply with before beginning accession negotiations. If the candidate country wishes to achieve the EU standards, it fulfils these requisites. If it doesn’t have the sufficient will to fulfill these, it will be left without a date for accession negotiations. Abolition of the death penalty and allowing teaching and broadcasting in Kurdish have been discussed for months as part of these criteria. The argument which says that these are sensitive issues for Turkey and the country has ‘special circumstances’ and that these issues should be discussed with the EU shows this lack of basic knowledge. Another issue where there isn’t enough information is the assumption that if these sensitive issues are solved, the road to accession negotiations will be opened immediately. The criteria the EU is putting forth are not limited to those. All the laws and implementations regarding freedom of expression should be arranged in compliance with EU standards. In other words, even if the issues leading to a disagreement within the coalition are solved, there will be other issues Turkey has to complete other homework on, and it would be wrong to say that the requests of the EU will never cease. The EU will not admit any candidate which doesn’t fulfill its own criteria. In the panels and similar organizations broadcast on television, we can see that there is an important lack of information on the issue. First we have to learn the facts regarding the issue. Aside from certain ideological and political beliefs, the first condition for finding the true path leading to the EU is this. It will be highly beneficial if various organizations working for Turkey’s membership to the EU should launch an information campaign on the issue. It is important that this campaign should be based totally on objective data and information, and reflect the facts as they are.

SOURCE: OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER, DIRECTORATE GENERAL OF PRESS AND INFORMATION