Turkish Accession to the EU: the “Piranha’s” Threat and the German “Ghost”
is pertinent to the service of national interests, EU cohesion and the upcoming enlargements. Indeed, in 1998, Richard Holbrook articulated in his book, “To end a War”, that German question did not exist any more. Taking into consideration the current economic crisis and the EU member states’ efforts to find a comprehensive solution, let me put the Holbrook’s allegation in question. Germany dominates Europe since Greece, Ireland, Portugal Spain and Italy depend on its financial aid and political support. The German government aims to identify its national interests with the common European ones as much as it can, setting also the policy of financial aid in this way: we may exchange financial support with the poorest states’ sovereignty. In this respect, one may argue that it is obvious a political and economic tendency leading to a “German Europe”, whatever that means. In any case, as Turkey constitutes a dominant country presenting itself as a regional power, a similar question is raised: will we have a European Turkey or a Turkish Europe? It is a scenario which mostly concern Germans, who feel the risk of losing a considerable part of their EU institutional and political power if Turkey joins the EU and becomes a legally and institutionally equal powerful cohabitant of the traditional EU leading countries in the heart of Europe (Baldwin and Widgér, 2005, Charalambides 2010, pp.116-123).
Bibliography • Ahmad, F 1993, The Making of Modern Turkey, Routledge, London and New York. • Baldwin, R & Widgrén, M 2005, The Impact of Turkish Membership on EU Voting, Centre for European Policy Studies, February, no. 62, viewed 18 July 2008, http://shop.ceps.eu/BookDetail.php?item_id=1194 • Barker, A and Spiegel, P 2011, Barrosso unveils action blueprint, Financial Times, October 13. • Barysch, K 2007, What Europeans Think about Turkey and Why, Centre for European Reform, August, viewed 31 March 2008, http://www.cer.org.uk/pdf/briefing_kb_turkey_24aug07.pdf • Bayis, E 2011, a short speech given in the context of meeting with a mission of the European Parliament (ENVI committee) in Istanbul, October 4. 90
YIANNOS CHARALAMBIDES