Brussels, 26/09/2005 (Agence Europe) - De-dramatising the issue of Turkey's accession to the EU in a speech on the boundaries of Europe during the European Convention of the UMP last Friday and Saturday, Hubert Haenel, president of the Delegation of the French Senate to the European Union, said (our translation throughout) that this accession "is not a question for today" because "today, it is clear that Turkey does not fulfil the conditions for accession" and "nor is the Union ready to welcome Turkey today" (due to the "breakdown" in the reform of its institutions and the EU's inability to afford "the extension of the common policies to Turkey"). "Where will we be in 10 or 15 years? Nobody can say", continued the French Senator (who was a highly active member of the Convention which drew up the European Constitution), adding: "my feeling is that the truth will out in the negotiations. It is during the negotiations that we will get the measure of the problems. And particularly, Turkey will be brought to take the measure to transfer sovereignty that it will have to agree to (...). For their part, the Member States will have to work out the cost of this new wave of enlargement (...). There is every chance that from these long negotiations there will arise (...) another, original solution, which is adapted to the specific problems posed by Turkey (...). Turkey will not join under the same conditions as Slovenia". For this reason, Mr Haenel does not believe that accession and privileged partnership should "go head-to-head", and feels that it is "likely that at the end of the day, the solution decided upon will contain elements of both", and that what we really need is a "tailor-made suit".
Generally speaking, enlargement appears "both useful and dangerous, desirable and threatening", in the view of Senator Haenel, who stressed: it will only be a sustainable success if the Union is made deeper in the same measure as it is made broader. Enlargement is in the economic interests of Europe, but it "appears as a threat" for its political dimension, he explained, whilst recognising: "the prospect of accession is the greatest foreign policy weapon the Union has", and if "we close the door, this dynamism which no longer work on the States which may have one eye on joining the Union one day, even if this is in the distant future".