91999E2060

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2060/99

by Ioannis Marínos (PPE-DE) to the Commission

(12 November 1999)

Subject: Turkey's eligibility for EU membership

The Commission has recommended to the Council and Parliament that Turkey should be accepted as an applicant member of the Union and, in so doing, it did not consider that the country's controversial geographical position (mainly in Asia) or its failure to fulfill the Copenhagen criteria (human rights, democratic institutions, treatment of minorities etc.) should be a barrier to that.

Why is it then the case, as President Prodi has stated, that if Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia or FYROM which are indisputably European countries submit applications for membership, the Commission will accept them as eligible only if they fulfill the Copenhagen criteria? Why is there such discrimination and on what principles and legal basis is this dual-approach, two-tier policy based? When and by whom was it decided to override the principles on which the European Union was founded and developed, when such a measure serves the economic and strategic interests of some of the Member States while undermining the corresponding interests of other countries in the Union?

Answer given by Mr Verheugen on behalf of the Commission

(3 December 1999)

The Commission has indeed taken the view that Turkey should be considered as a candidate country to Union membership. By applying for Union membership in 1987, Turkey has since a long time expressed its wish to become a member of the Union. Furthermore, the Ankara Agreement (notably its Article 28) and various Union statements clearly envisage the possibility of Turkey's accession.

The Commission applies the Copenhagen accession criteria in the same way to all candidate countries. These criteria must be met before a candidate country becomes a member of the Union. The same goes for Turkey. Moreover, there can be no question of opening negotiations with Turkey before this country fulfils the Copenhagen political criteria.

As to the other European countries, the Commission has recommended on 13 October 1999 that the Union should confirm that the countries of the former Yugoslavia and Albania have the ultimate vocation to become members of the Union. It has recommended also to further develop accession criteria, building on those defined at Copenhagen, which would make Union membership conditional not only upon the principles of Article 6 TEU, but upon mutual recognition of each other's borders, settlement of all outstanding issues relating to the treatment of national minorities, establishment of a regional organisation for free trade and economic cooperation as a basis for closer integration into the Union.