The European commission president, José Manuel Barroso, on Tuesday warned that Turkey’s European Union membership was ”neither guaranteed nor automatic”.
As formal accession talks — which could last for up to 15 years — finally got under way in Brussels, Barroso said Turkey, which has a mainly Muslim population of more than 70-million, had to win over sceptical Europeans before its entry into the union could be agreed.
”Turkey must win the hearts and minds of European citizens,” he said. ”They are the ones who, at the end of the day, will decide about Turkey’s membership.”
Surveys suggest less than 40% of EU citizens want Turkey to join, with the figure falling to around 20% and 10% in France and Austria respectively. Both countries have said they intend to hold referendums on whether Turkey should be allowed to join the EU.
The campaign to win over doubters on Tuesday began in earnest after talks on its membership almost failed to get off the ground following objections from Austria.
Austrian politicians eventually withdrew demands that Turkey should only be granted ”privileged partnership” status in the face of unanimous opposition from the other 24 EU members.
British EU delegates — who had championed Turkey’s membership as a way of improving relations with Muslims within the EU and further afield — said the union would benefit from the expansion.
”Every enlargement that has taken place within the European Union has made both the existing and the new member states stronger and more prosperous,” the British Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, said.
”I’m in absolutely no doubt that the benefits will follow from this enlargement and bring a strong secular state, which happens to have a Muslim majority, into the European Union.”
The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told the country’s Parliament he would have called off talks had Austria not backed down from demanding less than full membership for Ankara.
”We stood firm and got results,” Erdogan said. ”Common sense prevailed over prejudice. From time to time, there were moments when they made us lose our tempers, when we were made to feel really tired, when we went through difficult moments.”
Meanwhile, the Austrian Chancellor, Wolfgang Schuessel, said his drive to ensure that Ankara meets all the strict requirements for entry was not just political brinkmanship. ”It wasn’t a game … it wasn’t a manoeuvre,” he said. ”It was about the union and how it deals with prospective candidates.”
The French President, Jacques Chirac, said Turkey would need to undergo a ”major cultural revolution” to fulfil EU membership conditions. ”Will it succeed? I cannot say,” he said. ”I hope so. But I am not at all sure.”
The Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi said shutting the door to Turkey would have been ”unpardonable”.
However, the former French president, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, who led the project to draw up the EU Constitution, said he felt ”sadness and astonishment” about the 25-member body’s decision to begin entry talks with Turkey.
In an interview with French radio station RTL, Giscard d’Estaing credited Britain for achieving its goal of expanding markets, calling the start of accession talks a ”victory for the large free-market zone”.
Talks on Turkey’s membership could cover 35 ”chapters” including everything from the free movement of goods to judicial reform.
Turkish media described the start of talks as the fulfilment of a long-held dream, but also as the beginning of what could prove to be a long and arduous journey.
”The journey has begun,” the liberal daily Radikal, headlined. Hurriyet, one of Turkey best selling newspapers, said the country’s ”42-year-old EU dream is coming true”.
”Turkey, which was turned back from the gates of Vienna twice in history, is now entering the gates through peace and integration,” it wrote — a reference to Austria halting the Ottoman empire’s advance towards Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries .
Turkey’s IMKB-100, the stock exchange’s benchmark index, rose 3,25% in the first five minutes of trading to reach a record high of 35 ,094 points.
Ankara has sought to join the EU since being made an associate member in 1963. For years, its aspirations were frustrated by Greece, but Athens withdrew its objections in 1999 in the hope that eventual Turkish membership would help end long-standing disputes with its traditional rival. – Guardian Unlimited Â