Turkey and the Eu

Representatives of the neo-liberal institutionalism see the ELI, therefore, as a strong indication that intergovernmental institutions can not only serve for security concerns of individual countries to maximize their relative profit. They can also develop a power structure independent of their members. A possible accession of Turkey to the ELI was always matter In Europe since the establishment of the SEC In the year 1957. No other candidate for an admission has ever caused so many controversial discussions.

Despite the fact that every state agrees the process of the access negotiations there is still excellent a gig dispute whether if the Turkish admission politically is desirable or not. Negotiations were started on October 3rd 2005, and the process, should it be in Turkey’s favor, is likely to take at least a decade to complete. The membership bid has become a major controversy of the ongoing enlargement of the European Union. This statement describes the line I want to follow and the topics on which I have done my research for this paper very well:” The pros and cons of Turkey EX. membership could p many pages.

Against: Turkey is culturally very different; its ere capita GNP is a quarter the ELI average and Turkey could easily swallow up all the EX. development funds; EH legislation would cause very much internal resentment – as many could see It as conflicting with their religious laws; the country still has human rights Issues and hasn’t recognized the genocide where over a million Armenian died. For: if Turkey could join the EH and all the issues above are resolved we would have a fantastically dynamic economy in Europe that may be able to help us balance off against the upcoming industrial super powers of China and India.

Turkey would become more wealthy, secular, tolerant and open. The outcome is in the toss of a coin. ” 1 The economic performance is one of the most important access criterion for Turkey even as the Copenhagen criteria must not be fulfilled in total. In fact Turkey has as many inhabitants as Germany but has only one sixth of the German economic power The strongest argument is always, that an admission could open new markets In the east.

From this point of view there are existing a couple of numbers that point out clearly, that a Turkish EH admission may not be affordable for the European Union: * Only the yearly agricultural subventions, which should generate same wealth in total cost of 16 to 28 billion Euros, which is approximately 15% of the EH- budget These amounts may not be financed, with regards to the bad financial situation of the other member states. As a consequence of this many of the existing areas already supported, would lose their benefits, which would lead to an unacceptable situation.

Of course one must add, that these numbers are pure speculation and nobody can predict the exact numbers. Moreover after an accession of Turkey the EX. would gain lots of unpleasant neighbors, the central conflict regions of our planet full of unbelievable, unpredictable potentials of extremists. Thousands of miles of borders should be guarded to hold all the people that want to come from Asia, the Arabian peninsula, or maybe from Africa over Turkey to Europe. It is probably needless to say that this action also causes high costs.

In addition Turkey as the biggest country in the European Union would have the same rank within the European institutions as Germany, Great Britain and France. That is to say the poorest country plays a dominant political role. On the other hand Turkey has 72 million inhabitants (it would be the most populated country of the EX. in 15 years), which means, that a very large nonuser-market would be developed. A number of investors would raise capital and cheap manpower which would result in a gain of economic productivity and prevent the migration of Turkish workers.

In addition Turkey is a very important connection between the Caspian and Middle eastern energy sources and Europe. Several pipelines offer the EX. alternative energy routes, what will decrease the dependence from Russia. Nevertheless several articles have shown it is very unpredictable if the EX. would gain profit of a Turkey admission. Another interesting point with regards to the Turkish admission is the fear of the efferent religious settings ruling in Turkey, which causes different reactions in the ELI. 99% of the Turkish population is Muslim. 15 million Muslims are already living in the ELI. Millions of them live in Germany. Turkey would be the first Muslim-majority country to Join the European Union, although Albania, Bosnia and Herringbone and Spooks are also Muslim-majority, and have been recognized as potential candidate countries. Supporters of Turkey see the possible development of a European-Turkish- Islamic culture as a chance to split off Islam as a religious conviction from a political nomination system. They also argument, that we now have the unique chance to unite these cultures which is also a chance to show the people, that the impossible is possible.

I don ‘t think that the Turkish membership is really necessary to demonstrate multiculturalism to the inside and cooperation willingness to countries of other cultural circles to the outside. Opponents of a Turkish accession argue that Turkey is in the Arabian world not as popular as one suspects, because the Arabs see Turkey still as colonial power. So Turkey is no bridge between the east and the west. In the EX. is the principle of free movement of goods and free movement of persons, which would also be applied on Turkey as an EX. member.

This causes another fear in certain European countries. As I already mentioned 15 million Muslims are living in the ELI, from which the majority was not able to integrate very well. As a consequence important point for EX. citizens is also, that Turkey doses ‘t belong to Europe. With regards to Istanbul there is only a very small part of turkey that belongs to Europe. The big cultural difference is a result of the fact that Turkey has never noticed the Jewish-Christian ethics, the renaissance or the Enlightenment, as a European never noticed the culture of harems.

If the EX. accepts non-European countries it would also have to take in consideration the accession of other countries like Israel, Ukraine, Russia and White Russia. As a consequence of this it would be much more difficult to create a European identity, which is even in the actual situation a big problem. “l think that Turkey should be allowed into the EX. because of its long-standing historical goal of being integrated with the modern word as well as her historical ties with European countries.