Newsweek/MSNBC.com: Turks: We Don't Want Europe - by Owen Matthews

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Turks: We Don't Want Europe - by Owen Matthews

Aug. 21-28, 2006 issue - Once, Europe was a sweetshop, and Turkey was an eager kid with his face pressed to the window. Just two years ago, polls showed that more than 70 percent of Turks wanted to join the European Union, convinced that following the road to Brussels would make them richer, healthier and freer. Now, only months after long-delayed negotiations finally began, support for the EU has slipped to just 43 percent, and is falling fast. Support for joining the EU has fallen dramatically, driven in part by the high cost of living by European rules.

What caused Turkey's 40-year courtship of Europe to go so sour so quickly? The most obvious frictions are over Cyprus: Turks feel they are being bullied by Brussels into making further concessions over the divided island. Wounded national pride has punctured the EU dream for many Turks. But a more fundamental point of contention has arisen in nuts-and-bolts economic issues. Slowly and quietly, Turkish leaders of small and medium-size businesses, who are responsible for 55 percent of Turkey's GDP and 70 percent of jobs, are losing enthusiasm for joining the EU. Why? The cost and hassle of implementing the EU's 80,000-page Acquis Communautaire—the vast canon of rules and regulations on everything from air quality to the size and shape of bananas (imports must not be "abnormally bent"). A new study by the politically powerful Turkish Industry and Business Association estimates the cost of reforming Turkey's huge agriculture sector alone at up to $76 billion over the next decade, a significant hit for a $382 billion economy. Almost every clause of the Acquis Communautaire comes with a giant bill—for example, implementing European drinking-water standards will require digging up vast swaths of Turkey's often haphazardly planned cities to replace crumbling piping.Businessmen like Mehmet Yazici, head of the Altinok extractor-fan factory outside Istanbul, fear they'll go bankrupt complying with EU rules. If Altinok were to go by the book, its old East German-made stamp-pressing machinery would have to be replaced—it doesn't conform to EU safety standards. And under Brussels' labor laws, Yazici wouldn't be able to use teenage part-timers to package boxes after school or ask regular workers to pull 50-hour weeks. "If my labor costs become the same as in Germany, how will I compete?" complains Yazici. "And who will pay for all this new machinery?" Already, wage inflation is eroding Turkey's main economic advantage over other EU countries—cheap labor. Turkey's minimum wage has gone up 41 percent over the past five years (from $180 to $254 per month), which is less than inflation but catching up to competitors like Romania and Bulgaria. "EU-DIGEST: Unfortunately for Turkey there can be no exceptions to the rules for entering the EU. Every nation becoming a member of the EU has to comply, whatever the hardship. The choice is up to Turkey to remain in a semi-third-world condition with economic hardship for the majority of the rural population, or to modernize the country based on EU-standards with long-range benefits"
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