Paris, 08/11/2002 (Agence Europe) - In an interview published in "Le Monde" on 8 November, Valery Giscard d'Estaing states: "Turkey is a country close to Europe, an important country, which has a genuine elite, but it is not a European country … Its capital is not in Europe, it has 95% of its population outside Europe". In the European Convention, "we are reasoning on the basis of a Europe aat 25 plus 2, full stop!", (the ten first candidates plus Bulgaria and Romania), exclaimed VGE. And, noting that "those who have most pushed for enlargement in the direction of Turkey are adversaries of the European Union"; he reproaches the Union of having "always been ambivalent vis-a-vis the Turkish leaders, as the majority of the European Council has in fact spoken against (accession), but has never said so to the Turks". Turkey, VGE warns, would be "the largest Member state of the Union", and beginning negotiations with her would lead to Morocco's requesting to join (an attempt has already been made in the past: Ed.). And, deploring "the poverty of the debate on enlargement beyond the European continent" (the failed major debate on the Union's borders that MEPs members of the UDF like Alain Lamssoure and Jean-Louis Bourlanges tried to arouse: Ed.), he considered that enlargement beyond Europe would be "the end of the European Union".
The spokesperson for Commissioner Verheugen commented: these are personal stances, and there is no reason to place back into question the pre-accession strategy for turkey.
Dehaene stresses that it is not up to the Convention to decide on enlargement - According to
Turkish members of the Convention, VGE should resign
VGE's words, a little after the Brussels Summit that confirmed Turkey's vocation of EU membership, became the main object of the press conference given by Convention Vice-President Jean-Luc Dehaene, who replaced the president at the end of the plenary. The spokesperson for Mr. Valery Giscard d'Estaing said that the latter had returned to France to respond to other obligations. "I have not read the article", said Dehaene, while noting that according to a summary, "the president gave a personal point of view". "I would not personally have done so", he continued having acknowledged that it was up to the president and vice-presidents to show a certain amount of discretion. Subjected to a barrage of questions, Dehaene observed that "enlargement is not within the competencies of the Convention" and that "the European Council decided to invite Turkey to the Convention … and negotiate with the 12 candidate countries but did not decide to begin negotiations with turkey". You may recall that Anders Fogh Rasmussen stressed in Brussels on Tuesday that Turkey had the status of candidate country that gave it the right to be treated on an equal footing with the other candidates.
Turkish members of the Convention reacted by observing that VGE's arguments showed to total misconception of Turkey and the country's common history with Europe. They considered that the Convention president had stepped over the reservation imposed on him as his role of president and should resign. Other arguments were also challenged by several observers. Contrary to what Giscard d'Estaing states, Turkey could not have "the largest parliamentary group in the European Parliament", as the rules of procedure demand the presence of several nationalities within a political group, nor even the largest number of members as the German population exceeds the Turkish population by 50%. EUROPE recalls that Turkey is a member of the Council of Europe, considered to be a compulsory passage to the EU, contrary to Morocco that cannot enter due to borders that this organisation itself has set.