Britain's Cameron vows to "fight" for Turkey's EU bid

28/07/2010

British Prime Minister David Cameron says he's "angry" about the slow pace of Turkey's EU membership talks.

(The Guardian - 28/07/10; AFP, Reuters, FT, RFE/RL, BBC, Telegraph, Euobserver, Hurriyet, Downing Street No.10 - 27/07/10)

British Prime Minister David Cameron (right) and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan meet in Ankara. [Getty Images]

Reaffirming London's strong support for Turkey's EU bid, British Prime Minister David Cameron criticised on Tuesday (July 27th) opponents of the predominantly Muslim country's aspirations to join the bloc as a full-fledged member.

Visiting Ankara for the first time since assuming office in May, Cameron drew a parallel with France's attempts in the 1960s to block his country's entry into the European Economic Community, the forerunner of today's EU.

"We know what it's like to be shut out of the club," Cameron said. "But we also know that these things can change."

He said there are three categories of opponents to Turkey's membership bid: protectionists, who fear its economic power; the polarised, who want it to choose between East and West; and the prejudiced, who wilfully misunderstand Islam.

"I will always argue that the values of real Islam are not incompatible with the values of Europe, that Europe is defined not by religion, but by values," Cameron said.

Turkey began membership negotiations with the EU in October 2005. But the process has been slow, as the country has managed to open talks on only 13 of the 35 chapters that candidate countries are required to complete. That is largely due to Turkey's sluggish reform progress and its refusal to open its ports and airports to traffic from EU-member Cyprus, as a result of which eight of the negotiation chapters remain frozen.

Another factor contributing to the pace of the negotiations is France and Germany's insistence that Ankara should not be offered full-fledged membership in the bloc after it wraps up the talks, rather, some sort of a "privileged partnership".

While urging Turkey to continue implementing "aggressively" EU required reforms, Cameron expressed "anger" at moves to obstruct its accession progress.

"When I think about what Turkey has done to defend Europe as a NATO ally, and what Turkey is doing today in Afghanistan, alongside our European allies, it makes me angry that your progress towards EU membership can be frustrate d in the way it has been," he said. "My view is clear: I believe it is just wrong to say that Turkey can guard the camp but not be allowed to sit in the tent."

The British leader also pledged to actively promote and "fight" for Turkey's EU membership bid, saying he wanted the two countries to "pave the road from Ankara to Brussels".

Cameron signed a strategic partnership document aimed at deepening trade and defence ties with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday, and insisted that the EU could only benefit politically and economically from Turkey's membership.

Turkey, which has more young people than any of the 27 EU member states, is expected to catch up to the bloc's most populous nation, Germany, within the next six years. It is also set to become the second-largest economy in Europe by 2050.

"A European Union without Turkey is not stronger but weaker, not more secure but less secure, not richer but poorer," Cameron stressed.