On Thursday, the Turkish Industrialists’ & Businessmen’s Association (TUSIAD) issued a statement warning France that derailing Turkey’s EU bid would be against its own interests.
The statement was prompted by a recent amendment to the French constitution that would leave it to the discretion of the French president whether or not to call a referendum to approve an agreement on membership of a candidate country to the EU.
“Under the package, the president will not put approval of membership of countries defined as ‘European’ to a referendum while he will be able to call for a referendum for ‘non-European’ Turkey. It is impossible to explain such an unbelievable contradiction stemming from ‘hostile’ attitude by the French president and MPs against Turkey,” the TUSIAD statement said.
President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has spoken out against Turkey being given full membership of the EU, proposing instead Ankara be offered a privileged partnership arrangement with the bloc.
The TUSIAD statement said that France’s economic ties with Turkey could be harmed in the event Paris tried to obstruct the accession process.
“France’s commercial relations with Turkey amounted to $14 billion last year,” the statement said. “Also, French private sector made investments in Turkey worth of 3 billion USD in the last five years. According to our point of view, it is unfortunate that France has been trying to hamper our EU membership process to digress the public opinion.”
“Efforts of some administrations which are deprived of strategic thought and pursue prejudiced policies, to put the future of the Union under a mortgage is also the problem of the EU itself. The most important key allowing the EU to consolidate its economic and political power in the global platform, and to create an environment of prosperity and security in its region is Turkey’s becoming a member to the EU,” TUSIAD added.
