« Amakudari | Main | 1:10:03/168 »
October 03, 2005
Turkey and the EU
BBC News online is running a story about the official start of talks between Turkey and the EU nations for Turkey to be included in the European Union. This has been a hot topic in France, where politicians are always on the lookout for something to say that can eat up lots of news program time while keeping internal problems off the table.
The BBC appears to be in favor of Turkey's inclusion in the EU, but at the same time shows a graph of popular support for Turkish EU membership. Hungary is the only country listed with the majority of those polled in favor. The EU average appears to be around 35% in favor. Less than 10% of Austrians are in favor.
Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said her country was "listening to the people" by questioning full membership for Turkey....after a series of meeting with UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, it appeared she gave way.
Thank goodness Mr. Straw is there to prevent Ms. Plassnik from listening to the people. Where would Europe be if politicians actually tried to represent the people who theoretically voted them into office?
That article doesn't show what percentage of Turkish people want their country to belong to the EU. I found a Sunday Times article stating that "57% of Turks wanted to join the EU," though the number has dropped from over 2/3, and is lower than half among workers.
For European and Turkish investors, having Turkey in the EU is most likely a good thing. European firms will be able to outsource inside the economic space to a low cost work force, and EU finance rules will force Turkey to tame inflation.
Posted by Mark at October 3, 2005 09:02 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://mcraig.org/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/873