“He irks us” is the understatement of the century. Ankara is furious with Paris. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has proposed an amendment to the French constitution that would require a referendum on each country seeking accession to the European Union. This would render Turkey’s bid completely pointless.
Solid majorities in Denmark, Cyprus, France, Austria and a variety of other member states oppose Turkey. What’s more, a 2006 poll found that 59% of EU citizens wanted to show Turkey the door.
Ankara can take heart in recent news coming out of Paris. Zaman reports that a large number of Senators from the ruling Union for Popular Movement (UMP) government will oppose the amendment. Will their opposition be enough? If it’s not, Turkey-EU relations will undoubtedly take a nose dive.
June 16, 2008 at 8:06 pm
[...] protect the accession hopes of countries such as Croatia. For a bit of background, have a look at this post. AFP reports that the bill denied in comittee. The following reason was given: “[the bill [...]