HOW DID THEY (E.G. SPAIN, POLAND) PREPARE FOR THE EU ACCESSION? LESSONS FOR TURKEY

HANS JÖRG KRETSCHMER

European Commission Ankara Representative

Thank you very much Mr. Chairman, good morning ladies and gentlemen, the time limit you have given us is in fact a very big challenge and almost as big as Turkish accession to the EU but I’ll try my best to keep in the time frame.

Ladies and gentlemen, we are ahead of a historical moment and that is the beginning of negotiations of the EU with Turkey about succession to the EU and the decision of 17^th of December, which opened the way for these negotiations, was in fact fundamentally political decision. If you look at the background at what had happened until that date in fact a decision which would have been different could also have been justified but the positive character of this decision to open negotiations is in fact a sing of the political will of the EU to have Turkey to join the Union after it has fully complied with the conditions and I would compare this act of political will with what the European Council had decided in 1993 when it considered the possible application for membership of the Central and Eastern European countries where it had decided that not withstanding concerns in that regard the associated countries of Central and Eastern Europe which so desire shall become members of EU and that was also the time well-known Copenhagen criteria were adopted the political and economic criteria, the administrative criteria and of course also the very often forgotten false criteria namely that the Union’s capacity to absorb new members has to be preserved and the momentum of European integration has to be preserved.

So given this decision of the 17^th December there should be no doubt in anyone’s head not withstanding statements which are made here and there that there is an overwhelming political will at the political level in the EU to have Turkey join and Turkey has proven its determination to become a full member by a very impressive Ambassador Sungar called it revolutionary reforms which have been carried out until then. A small sign of our seriousness is perhaps also the fact that the European Commission delegation in Ankara has in the meantime become the biggest of the 125 delegations of the European Commission worldwide. Now what has been causing some concern on the Turkish side worthy proposals for a negotiating framework, the ideas which have been formulated by the European Commission and by the European Council on how these negotiations should be conducted but I believe that these ideas about a framework should not be taken negatively.

First of all of course the political reforms in Turkey have to continue, we all know they are not complete, there are many areas where we need further legislative change, there are especially many areas where the implementation of reforms has to be improved. Secondly the ideas about the conduct of negotiations the opening of each of 35 negotiation chapters which cover the entire acqi of the Union and the provisional closure of these chapters, they are basically common sense with regard to the opening of chapters we would expect Turkey first to fulfill its obligations in this area, specific areas concerned by each of these chapters before we start to negotiating new obligations and secondly before we provisionally close these chapters we would expect a certain track record of implementation which is also understandable because in principle at day one after accession a member country is expected to fully comply in law and in practice with the obligations, with the acqi communitaire so it should be understandable that one expects compliance and ability of implementation also on the last day before accession.

Two important sentences have been written into the Commission recommendation of October 2004, which I want to quote because they are so important and they give the essence of the entire process. First, pace of reforms will determine progress in negotiations so Turkey determines the pace of its reforms and if it does these reforms efficiently and comprehensively the accession stage will be reached much earlier and secondly, determined implementation of continued reforms will insure a successful conclusion of the negotiations.

The third important element of this idea of a framework is this dialogue. We have suggested and will expand on that in the course of this summer, a dialogue between the peoples of the EU member states and of Turkey not the usual dialogue between politicians and bureaucrats but a dialogue between people, people to people dialogue with a strong involvement of civil society organizations and that is because we both have problems with public opinion. You know that number of member state public opinion is rather skeptical about Turkish accession but also Turkey has a problem with public opinion at the moment we see that somewhere between 62 and 75% of people in this country support the EU accession on the other hand we also know that more then this percentage of people do not know anything about EU. So public support based on ignorance is not a stable figure and therefore the Turkish government as well has to work on its public opinion in order to insure continued support by the public for this EU agenda because if you look at the last couple of years, the strong support by the public opinion in Turkey for EU accession was perhaps strongest ally of this government when it carried through these important reforms.

Let me say a few words about the term of negotiations, there may still be also we said this very often a misunderstanding about what negotiations mean. Negotiation is not about trying to figure out how the acqi communitaire could be made compatible with Turkish wishes and Turkish conditions, no. In principle are processes of compliance; Turkey has fully to comply with the acqi communitaire in all areas like all the previous accession countries. In the political area, in the economic area, in the administrative area and the only thing which in fact can be negotiated is the transitional periods in fact in the previous round of negotiations there were quite numerous transitions agreed where candidate countries negotiate certain period of time before they are expected to fully comply with the EU rules, this was especially prevalent in the area of agriculture environment and taxation but also the EU wanted some transition period that has become particularly visible in the area of labor movement where a transition up to 7 years before free movement of labor was agreed with the accession in countries. And of course negotiations will concern a budget, budget of how much Turkey would receive in community funds for example in the area of agriculture, direct payments to farmers or in the area of regional and structural assistance, the guiding principle in this respect has been in the last round of negotiations that an accession country should not be in a worse position then prior to accession where each of these countries received a significant amount of pre-accession assistance and that an accession country should not become a net contributor. Our pre-accession assistance which focuses on assisting Turkey in being able to comply with the acqi communitaire will be increasing very steeply, we will have half a billion Euro next year and I expect over the next financial perspectives until 2013 this amount to go well beyond 1 billion Euro per year. But we cannot of course expect a linear extrapolation looking at what the previous accession countries got and then multiply with the population in Turkey, this is a calculation, which you would not support.

The second point, which I want to mention, is that the accession process is an intergovernmental process that is 25 member states and Turkey negotiates with each other. The European Commission is not negotiating although we are doing the bulk of the work. We will be doing the screening, we will be doing preparing the common positions of the EU for the opening and provisional closure of chapters and so on.

So let me just say in conclusion that accession process as such in a formal sense will not be very visible, you will have 2 accession conferences per year, at ministerial level you may have 2 to 4 conferences at ambassador or chief negotiator level on the side of the accession country. The rest is important work, technical work, which has to be carried out which is not necessarily very visible. Technical work but also as it has been very well set before it is a political process particularly also in the accession country, in Turkey itself that government has to show clear direction, leadership, patience and confidence in promoting this objective of EU accession where immediate benefits cannot be expected. It is a process, which will last not shorter then until 2014 and this requires patience and determination and strategic planning. We from the European Commission are certainly determined to give full support to Turkey in this regard and I believe if the political stability which have been so helpful in terms of enabling the country to conduct the reforms which has conducted until now, if this political stability will be preserved in the future that Turkey will indeed have a very good chance to become a member because my personal opinion is that the more Turkey becomes a liberal market economy democracy as we want it to be to take place in the circle of EU member states the less skeptical public opinion will become in the EU and the more support in Turkey itself with project will gain. Thank you very much.

I just want to underline again two elements. One is that perhaps the biggest challenge for a candidate country is not so much vis a vie the EU but within in its own country and that reflects what has been said by Ambassador Mr. Sungar and other colleagues in this round so the government needs to show leadership, clear sense of direction, unwavering sense of direction, determination and has to do everything possible to get the country behind it in this long hole exercise and the second thing is what the Polish colleague already said macroeconomic and political stability because when we ask what does the Union get out of Turkish membership, I think one of the fundamental assets of Turkish membership into Union is that thru membership as already to a certain extend through the negotiation process Turkey will gain or we hope that it will gain political and economic stability and the Union has fundamental interest having in this part of the world, in the southeast of its current territory a politically and economically stable country and therefore this goal must be achieved, there should remain no doubts that Turkey has become politically and economically stable at the moment of accession. Thank you.

Question (Özdem Sanberk): Teşekkür ederim. Benim sorum Sayın Kretschmer’e. Türkiye bugün AB gündeminin sadece % 5’ini konuşuyor. Türkiye’nin AB’ne katılması ancak Türkiye’nin AB gündeminin % 95’ini konuştuğu zaman olacak. Sayın Kretschmer’e sorum şu: AB’nin, Avrupa gündeminin Türkiye’de yaygınlaşmasını sağlayabilecek bir stratejisi var mı? İletişim stratejisi nedir? Kaynakları yeterli mi?

Question (Elif Akyüz): Gazi Üniversitesi. Mr. Kretschmer we all know that the money is very important for all countries, could you give me more information about the funds which will be given in the future by the EU to Turkey.

Question: Basit sorularım var. Birinci sorum, AB’ne giren ülkeler içerisinde üye olmadan önce gümrük birliğini kabul eden ülkeler var mıdır? İkinci sorum, üye olan ülkelerin üyelik müracaatından sonra ne kadar zaman içerisinde üyeliğe kabul edildikleri. Üçüncü sorum, Güney Kıbrıs devletini, Kıbrıs’ın tamamını temsil etmediği halde üye olarak kabul edilmesini adil buluyor musunuz ve bu devletin başının sık sık Türkiye ile ilgili meselelerde veto hakkını kullanacağını söylemesi acaba etik bir değer taşımakta mıdır? Bir de Sayın Kretschmer ülkenin vatandaşlarının AB’ni kalben kabulünün gerekli olduğunu ima eden sözler söylediler. Ona katılmamak mümkün değil. Ancak, zaman zaman ülke vatandaşlarının çok hassas konuların Türkiye’nin karşısına çıkarılması zannederim ki, AB’ne duyulan sempatiyi azaltır. Mesela, olmayan, aslında tersi olan Ermeni meselesinin çıkarılması. Arkasında ne olduğunu bilmediğimiz Heybeliada okulunun çıkarılması. Kıbrıs’ın önümüze zaman zaman getirilmesi dikkat çekicidir. Bir son nokta da, political instability’den bahsettiler. Türkiye serbest seçimle hükümetini seçmiştir. Gelecek seçimde belki bir başka parti iktidara gelecektir. Acaba Türkiye’de yapılan serbest seçimde bir şüphe mi vardır? Teşekkürler.

Question (Hakan Gümüş): ODTÜ Avrupa çalışmalarında master yapıyorum. Aynı zaman Türkiye’de bir gençlik konseyi kurulması için çalışanlar arasındayım. İki sorum var. Birincisi Sayın Kretschmer’e, ikincisi Sayın Sungar’a. Birincisi, Avrupa kamuoyunun özellikle gençlerin Türkiye fikrine ve Türkiye ile olan ilişkilere hazırlanması konusunda AB Komisyonu’nun ne gibi projeleri var ve önümüzdeki proje döneminde özellikle gençlerin arasındaki ilişkilerin geliştirilmesi için bir şeyler planlanıyor mu? Sayın Sungar’a ise, genelde gençlikle ilgili çalışan bütün kuruluşlar uluslararası fonlardan faydalanarak projeler yapıyorlar. Acaba Türkiye’nin de bu konuda fonları olsa ve Türkiye nasıl bir gençlik istediğini ve Avrupa’daki gençlerle nasıl ilişkiler geliştirmek istediğine karar verse ve gençler de bu fonlardan faydalansa iyi olmaz mı? Ve tabii ki 10-15 sene sonra AB ile ve Türkiye’de karar verici konumunda olan insanlar aslında bugünkü 18-20-25 yaşında olan insanlar. Şimdiden Avrupa Parlamentosu’na Türkiye’den parlamenter yetiştirmek gibi bir vizyonumuz da var mı?

Question (Türker Çelik): Platin Dergisi. Sorum Sayın Kretschmer’e. Aslında benim sorum genel anlamda Özdem Bey’in sorusunun devamı. Türkiye’de toplumsal olarak şöyle bir algılama var. Algılama düzeyinden bahsediyorum. AB’nin evrensel değerler düzleminden çok .... milliyetçiliği destekler mesajlar verdiği yönünde bir algılama var. Bu gerçek değildir ama toplum bu şekilde algılıyor. Siz bu düzlemde baktığınızda acaba AB’nin iletişim stratejisini eğer Türk vatandaşlarının desteğini kazanmaksa yeterli olduğunu düşünüyor musunuz?

Very briefly and unfortunately by you folks here so I did not fully absorbed what ambassador Sungar was saying. Very briefly to the questions, on the issue of the services and movement of white color people I mean clearly this free movement of services is one of the 4 fundamental freedoms of the EU. The CU in principle also foresees that but we have not yet unfortunately concluded necessary agreement between Turkey and EU on the free movement of services so that is still in the negotiation stage, I don’t want to go into further detail. Knowledge about the EU or e-agenda in Turkey in fact that’s a big problem to spread, this knowledge and certainly in our efforts of EU and the efforts of Turkey to create realistic expectations in Turkey about EU membership, that is a task which we have to accomplish. Certainly we are not developing a communication strategy which aims at increasing the knowledge, there are many means certainly, one aspect is to develop this dialogue with Turkey and the EU about which I spoke, Commission will make a statement on that in couple of weeks time. NGO role in the whole process I think cannot be overestimated without the growing number and growing efficiency of the NGO participation in the political process in Turkey the reforms which have been achieved so far would not have been achieved and I hope there will be further development of the civil society in Turkey and the same applies of the role of these organizations in this dialogue between the EU and Turkey to make people on both sides better understand what the other side is about and to correct the often wrong images. There was a question about the funding, I was talking about this in my first address, I don’t want to repeat it there will be an increase of pre-accession funding over the next couple of years the only thing certain until now is by next year we will have half a billion Euro in pre-accession funding, I also spoke in fact of the impossibility of linear extrapolation from the smaller member states which have …..to the Union that is intrinsically linked to two issues one is the financial capacity of the EU and the other issue is absorption capacity of Turkey. There was a question to Cyprus whether something was fair or unfair, I think we better leave this to the judgment of history and I am not aware that Republic of Cyprus which is now a member of the EU is continuously threatening to veto progress of Turkey in the accession negotiations in fact my impression is that the statements we hear from the Republic of Cyprus government is to the opposite, that they will not block Turkish progress in its candidacy towards membership in the EU. Somebody spoke of citizens in Turkey not being able to accept what we want from Turkey and it was mentioned the Heybeliada and reopening, this is an issue which has basically to be dealt with by the Turkish government because if an issue is important in the context of fulfillment of the political criteria in this case for example the issue of religious freedom, that is a condition that Turkey has to fulfill and I think we will make our effort to explain why this is fundamental but essentially it is also an effort the Turkish government in the process of leadership role in this process within Turkey has to get across that certain things simply have to be fulfilled. As I said before these issues, the political criteria cannot be negotiated away, they have to be fulfilled we have common bases, charter human rights and fundamental freedoms and I am convinced that the government in the course of the next couple of years will insure that complete compliance of Turkey with these fundamental criteria which are in the interest of Turkish people themselves will be achieved. There was another question on the role of youth, I would say the same what I’ve been saying before we will develop ideas and strategy on this dialogue and we’ll certainly include the youth because youth is the future of all of us, of Turkey and of the EU. In light of my experience with young people in Turkey, which very often are very enlightened, liberal and forward looking I think that is also a pillar for the accession process of Turkey. Thank you very much.