From Europe News:
Turkey turns away from Europe
CBS News 14 December 2011
By Philip Terzian
One way to gauge the present state of European unity is to know that Turkey, which has energetically sought membership in the European Union for the past decade, is now having second thoughts about the enterprise. According to the German Marshall Fund, in 2004, three-quarters of Turks thought EU membership was a good idea; last year, that percentage had dropped to little more than a third. A recent story in the New York Times featured a pointed question from a prominent supporter of the Erdogan government in Ankara: "The EU has absolutely no influence over Turkey, and most Turks are asking themselves, 'Why should we be part of such a mess?' " The reasons this has come to pass tell us as much about Europe, and its faltering quest for economic and political unity, as about Turkey.
It is not difficult to comprehend why and how the notion of Turkish membership was ever seriously contemplated. The EU itself is the culmination of several decades' worth of wishful thinking: that the experience of two devastating wars had persuaded Europeans to set aside national differences in a common, transnational cause; and that the cause had persuaded postwar Europeans to surrender their currencies (and, to some degree, national sovereignty) in favor of a common monetary zone and limited authority in Brussels.
Now we know how that turned out. As long ago as 1914 socialists were surprised to discover that working-class Europeans tended to think of themselves as Frenchmen and Germans and Italians, not Europeans, when hostilities broke out. And while Europeans, for differing reasons, might have welcomed the creation of the eurozone--Germans as a means of ratifying economic dominance, Greeks for the opportunity to hitch their wagon to the stars--they have since learned the familiar lesson that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Public opinion in Germany is becoming impatient with the idea of bailing out the EU's less provident members, and public opinion in Greece is similarly impatient with austerity dictated from Berlin. (...)
Posted December 14th, 2011 by pk
Turkey turns away from Europe
CBS News 14 December 2011
By Philip Terzian
One way to gauge the present state of European unity is to know that Turkey, which has energetically sought membership in the European Union for the past decade, is now having second thoughts about the enterprise. According to the German Marshall Fund, in 2004, three-quarters of Turks thought EU membership was a good idea; last year, that percentage had dropped to little more than a third. A recent story in the New York Times featured a pointed question from a prominent supporter of the Erdogan government in Ankara: "The EU has absolutely no influence over Turkey, and most Turks are asking themselves, 'Why should we be part of such a mess?' " The reasons this has come to pass tell us as much about Europe, and its faltering quest for economic and political unity, as about Turkey.
It is not difficult to comprehend why and how the notion of Turkish membership was ever seriously contemplated. The EU itself is the culmination of several decades' worth of wishful thinking: that the experience of two devastating wars had persuaded Europeans to set aside national differences in a common, transnational cause; and that the cause had persuaded postwar Europeans to surrender their currencies (and, to some degree, national sovereignty) in favor of a common monetary zone and limited authority in Brussels.
Now we know how that turned out. As long ago as 1914 socialists were surprised to discover that working-class Europeans tended to think of themselves as Frenchmen and Germans and Italians, not Europeans, when hostilities broke out. And while Europeans, for differing reasons, might have welcomed the creation of the eurozone--Germans as a means of ratifying economic dominance, Greeks for the opportunity to hitch their wagon to the stars--they have since learned the familiar lesson that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Public opinion in Germany is becoming impatient with the idea of bailing out the EU's less provident members, and public opinion in Greece is similarly impatient with austerity dictated from Berlin. (...)
Posted December 14th, 2011 by pk
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