The Union and Turkey: The Hard Way

Extract

On November 3, 2002, the Turkish elections brought an overwhelming victory for the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi-AKP), the first party since 1987 to secure a clear majority in Parliament. It triumphed on a ticket including Turkey's entry into the European Union. Valéry Giscard d'Estaing then grasped the occasion and his newfound status of Convention chairman to vent an old conviction (reported in Le Monde of 9 November) that Turkey's entry into the EU would be ‘the end of European Union’. It was a good thing that hardly anyone in the Convention took notice of this irrelevant and even irresponsible step. But in the eyes of the public a link between the Constitution and Turkey's accession had been established beyond doubt. It could only be undone by European leaders in power (first by Chirac) at the cost of heavy concessions to populist demands. France will have a separate referendum on Turkey and on other accessions thanks to a constitutional amendment (see Carcassonne's contribution to this issue). Other countries will follow no doubt.