Brickbats and bouquets for Giscard as Convention leader talks Turkey

Date: 14/11/02

By Dana Spinant

VALERY Giscard d'Estaing's taboo-breaking remarks about the 'unsuitability' of Turkey as a future EU member may have caused consternation in most quarters over the past week, but there is a growing realisation in Brussels that his comments were intended and not the result of a gaffe.

The head of the Convention on the future of Europe told journalists that Turkish membership would be 'the end of the European Union' and suggested that even if the country met the entry requirements - the so-called Copenhagen criteria - it would never fit in.

He went further during an address to MEPs, industrialists and businessmen last week when he called for a halt to more enlargement after the present 12 applicants enter. 'This is a fragile Europe which needs stability,' he said.

Giscard came under fire immediately for his comments on Turkey. Terming them 'incautious remarks', Pat Cox, president of the European Parliament, said: 'As far as I know, the president of the French Republic is Mr Chirac.'

Wilfried Martens, chairman of the European People's Party, and Jean-Luc Dehaene, Convention vice-president, said in Giscard's place they would not have made such a statement. 'It is not his task to make such declarations,' Martens said.

Several commissioners have also been scathing, going as far as to suggest that the former French president had been 'reckless'.

'Not to understand the relation between Islam and Christianity in the formation of Europe is to be less educated than one should be,' one said this week. 'The issue is more delicate and important than his contribution suggests.'

Nevertheless, Giscard was not short of friends this week, who applaud him for having the courage to say on-record what so many politicians have for a long time said off-record - namely that Turkey is too different, too big and too remote to join the EU. The latter view was expressed by Hubert Haenel, the French representative on the Convention.

But support didn't just come from Giscard's countrymen. 'His comments are dangerous, but isn't it necessary to finally open this debate now, before giving Turkey a date? We did not have this debate before the Helsinki summit, when we granted Turkey candidate statute. Imagine that we give Turkey a date without much reflection, and then suddenly we say 'sorry, we changed our mind, you can't join': it would be a disaster,' a German Christian Democrat MEP said.

Concerns have been voiced that Giscard's statement risks complicating his position as head of the Convention and the forum's ability to focus on its agenda. He has clearly lost the support of the Turkish representatives and there have been calls for him to consider his position.

However, his staff are right behind him. 'If you write a constitution, you have to know for whom you write it,' said the Convention's spokesman Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut. As the Convention reflects on across-the-board reforms of the EU, the Union membership and the procedure for accession are worth revisiting too. 'The new constitutional treaty will have to include a clause on future accessions,' Meyer-Landrut added.

Other Convention insiders say the debate had to be opened, sooner or later. 'We should end the present ambiguity and even hypocrisy concerning Turkey.

'After Helsinki leaders felt obliged at every European Council to give ever more encouraging signs to Turkey but we all knew they looked at it under pressure, like this was a fatality they could not escape. Before making a new decisive step, we should look at the issue hypocrisy-free,' a senior Convention official told this paper.

Insiders also point out that Giscard is well aware that the balance of power has shifted in the EU. The majority of leaders on the European Council now come from the Right or Centre-Right.

Although Jean-Claude Juncker, prime minister of Luxembourg, is the only one to have explicitly questioned Turkey's suitability as a member state, several others have alluded to serious concerns. Even Joschka Fischer, the Green German foreign minister, suggested during his visit to Washington last week that the prospect of Turkey joining the EU was as unlikely as Mexico joining the US.

But perhaps the biggest problem for Giscard is that he has risked losing the confidence of heads of state and government. There is no doubt that he has managed to convince them of the importance of the Convention, but their support could quickly dissipate. So far they have kept their own counsel, but such a silence may become deafening.

Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, head of the Convention on the future of Europe, has come under fire for his comments about the 'unsuitability' of Turkey as a future EU member.