Just say no: regarding Turkey's bid for EU membership, think "neighbor" instead of "family.".

• Author: Welfens, Paul J.J.

The European Commission has suggested--based on a report--opening negotiations on EU membership with Turkey, a country with only a tiny sliver of land located in Europe. The Commission's decision is welcomed in Turkey as it will bring huge transfers of EU funds which could reach up to 4 percent of Turkish GDP. Moreover, Turkey would become an influential voice at the political table in Brussels.

However, prospective EU membership of Turkey raises critical issues in the Community and in several member countries. Based on opinion polls, a large majority of the population of EU-25 countries is opposed to Turkey's joining. Nevertheless, Gunter Verheugen, the commissioner in charge of enlargement in the Prodi Commission, has presented his report on Turkey, and the European Commission has declared that at some future point negotiations with Turkey should begin. Verheugen has argued that both the European Union and Turkey stand to benefit from membership for Turkey, which is considered to be an economic and political bridge into the Arab world. Verheugen has also argued that a larger European Union including Turkey--would be a world power as its borders would stretch from Portugal to the border of Syria. Is this true or is this mostly an overblown idea of a Brussels bureaucrat?

Verheugen has argued that negotiations could take more than a decade and that there will be restrictions attached to migration. The latter is wishful thinking as the European Court's rulings have clearly ruled out any long-term restrictions on labor mobility for EU member countries. Moreover, one may note that a project which apparently requires roughly a decade of negotiations is premature--which companies have ever embarked upon a decade-long negotiation process? The main trick achieved by announcing a long negotiation process is to eliminate any real influence on the process by the present European Parliament. The Commission and the European Council--the heads of governments--warn to impose a decision on the people of the European Union that never would find a majority in a referendum. The French president already has announced that he will consider a referendum on Turkish EU membership. In France, opinion polls show a clear majority against such a membership.

The German government has suggested that bringing Turkey into the Community is a rational element of international policy in the post-9/11 world: It would show that a large democratic Muslim society can be a member of the European Community. This is a strange argument--that one should shift the eastern borders of the European Union towards Asia simply as testimony to political correctness...