Comment on "Turkey and Europe: Louis Michel's point of view".

https://soundcloud.com/ecours/133-ok

Louis Michel was the of Foreign Affairs Minister of Belgium from 1999 up to 2004, then a
European Commissioner from 2004 to 2009 before becoming a Member of the European
Parliament once again. In this television interview, we are asking him why he supports a Turkish
accession to the European Union as it would be an "obedience to Islam".

In that case the religious dimension is taken into account. In fact, this criterion is never used but
only for Turkey, since that a large number of European countries are populated by minority or
majority Muslims (like Bosnia and Herzegovina or Albania that are not members right now but
are intended to become such).

Louis Michel asserts that the founding forefathers did not take into account the geographical or
religious criteria. As a matter of fact, as France joined the European Coal and Steel Community,
Algeria was still part of the national territory. Moreover, the Schuman declaration of 1950 (link)
raises the necessary European commitment to Africa.

The European treaty is more ambiguous. It states that "all European countries may ask to
become a member" without any accompanying definition. Nevertheless, the European States
seem to have settled the issue as the accession negotiations started back in 2005.

Louis Michel asserts that we "are European when we respect the values of the market economy
as well as the democratic values". In this, he is right since the "criteria of Copenhagen", decided
in 1993, indicate essential elements to a membership: democratic values, market economy,
respect for the European law. The Copenhagen criteria also mention "the absorption capacity",
which is a trickier component.

Then the Member of Parliament points out that the European Union needs Turkey. Not only, the
refusal of its accession might feed the Islamist attitude there, but Turkey played an important role
in NATO throughout the Cold War against the USSR. Unlike the political characters that defend
geographical or cultural criteria, he calls for a strategic vision of an enlarged Europe.

Unlike the United Kingdom, which is unmistakably European but still hesitates to envision its
future with the EU, Turkey seemed a country with a somewhat of disputable Europeanness for a
long time, but was really willing. All this proves that the European Union is a community with
values, will, and a regional dimension.