Die deutschen Interessen an einer festen Verankerung der Türkei in den Strukturen des geeinten Europas
German Interests in a Definite Integration of Turkey in the Structure of the Unified Europe

Summary/Abstract: At the end of 2004, the European Council will decide whether accession negotiations with Turkey will be taken up. The conditions that have to be fulfilled in order to get a positive decision are written down in the Accession Partnership and in the Progress Reports of the EU-Commission. If negotiations were taken up, it would still be a long way to accession. That Turkey, which will join one day, will be a different country than today. Turkey is undergoing a substantial economic and social-political change that will only be carried out with the accession. The accession of Turkey will also change the European Union that will thus gain because it will have the chance to better integrate other cultures on the inside, it will gain stability on the outside, it will create a big additional market and it will thus build a bridge to the countries of the Near and Middle East. Therefore the Federal Government of Germany is supporting the European orientation of Turkey and the democratic development of the country. Foreign Minister Fischer has comprised this process in a speech he delivered on September 8, 2003, as follows: “A Turkey turning towards Europe, renewed in its substance, open and Europeanised would be one of the most important contributions to the outlines of a new order in this hot spot [Near/Middle East], a matchless stabilizing factor.“

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