Germany's EU presidency and Turkey

The newspaper has high hopes for Germany's EU presidency, which is scheduled to begin in January 2007. "It is certainly a good thing that Europe's largest and most important country is at the helm at a time when efforts will be made to revive the European constitution project. And it's also advantageous that the sensitive matter of Turkey's future within the European Union will be one of the major issues during the six months of Germany's presidency. If the discussion about the constitution is to be revived, then it should be conducted in the German spirit that has often provided Europe with visionary leadership, and on the condition that it doesn't get too loud. We need a more realistic approach to the debate about Turkey's membership – like that adopted by Angela Merkel. For too long now, the fairytale about the necessity of Turkish EU membership has overshadowed the real problem, namely that Turkey's membership would cast doubts on fundamental European values such as freedom of expression and respect for human rights."

» full article (external link, Danish)
More from the press review on the subject » EU enlargement, » Germany, » Europe, » Turkey

» To the complete press review of Tuesday, December 19, 2006