Public opposition to Turkey’s entry growing stronger in EU
Posted by meb at June 19th, 2007
A recently conducted poll revealed widespread opposition to Turkey’s European Union membership among European citizens; also indicated was strong opposition to European leaders’ plans to push a reworked EU constitution onto the statute book without further referenda.
The exclusive Financial Times/Harris opinion poll, published over the weekend in the UK daily, was conducted online by Harris Interactive among a total of 6,169 adults in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the US. According to the results strong opposition to Turkish membership in the EU was evident with 71 percent of French citizens and 66 percent of Germans answering “No” to a question asking: “Do you think that Turkey should be invited to join the EU?”
Among three other EU members — Britain, Italy and Spain — the support for Turkey stood between 20 and 40 percent. When a comparison is made between the three, the most powerful support was from Italy, with results slightly higher than 30 percent. The political leadership in all three EU member states is known for their stances in support of Turkey’s full membership in the now 27-member bloc. Those polled were aged 16-64 within Britain, France, Germany, Spain and the US; and aged 18-64 in Italy. The poll was conducted between May 31 and June 12.
The European Union’s term president, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel, will this week seek an outline agreement on a replacement for the EU constitution shot down by French and Dutch voters in referenda in 2005.
This time Merkel wants member states to ratify a new “simplified” treaty through national parliaments to avoid further public rejections, the Financial Times noted. It was also emphasized that only Ireland and — probably — Denmark are considered likely to put a new treaty to a referendum, and both are confident of a “Yes.”
The Financial Times/Harris poll found strong majorities in big European countries in favor of putting the next phase of EU integration to public votes in countries which did not ratify the original constitution, such as Britain, France, the Netherlands and Poland. A total of 75 percent of Spaniards, 71 percent of Germans, 69 percent of Britons, 68 percent of Italians and 64 percent of French believe the treaty important enough to warrant a referendum.
Meanwhile backing for further European enlargement remains fragile, with 67 percent of French respondents saying there should be no new members and with none of the big five Western European countries saying “Yes” to the idea.
In 2005 hasty remarks from top European figures following two referenda in which the French and the Dutch voters rejected the EU constitution had pointed to Turkey and its EU bid as a reason for the failure, yet results of several polls conducted in the two countries in the aftermath of the referenda showed that Turkey had in fact been used as a scapegoat for the failure.
At the time two flash Eurobarometer polls clearly revealed that Turkey’s EU bid did not play a major role in the failure of the EU constitution in referenda in France and the Netherlands.
The factor that most influenced the choice of “No” voters both in France and the Netherlands was the economic and social situation (47 percent and 26 percent, respectively), according to those polls. A flash Louis Harris poll published two days after the referendum in France showed only 22 percent of “No” voters said that opposition to Turkey’s EU entry was among their reasons to vote against the constitution.
The Financial Times/Harris poll also showed that, in spite of support for the idea of referenda, many European citizens remain only dimly aware of what they might be asked to vote on despite five years of constitutional wrangling.
Spain, which voted “Yes” to the original constitution, was most aware (77 percent), while that figure fell to 54 percent in Germany and only 45 percent in the UK. Some 55 percent of Britons said they had heard only the constitution’s name or had never heard of it at all.
source: Today’s Zaman
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