Telegraph | Comment
"The EU's hypocrisy
Faced with popular opposition to Turkish membership, the European Union is set to tighten conditions for entry at its summit in Brussels, which opens today. "The better the EU member states are prepared, the smoother the EU functions after enlargement," Olli Rehn, the enlargement commissioner, told the European Parliament yesterday. That is a bit rich coming from a union which, in 2004, accepted a divided Cyprus into its ranks. Accession took place just eight days after the Greek southern part of the island had overwhelmingly rejected a United Nations plan for reunification through a loose federal structure. Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, said that Cyprus had missed a historic opportunity and that the EU would be admitting a "divided and militarised" member. It is hard to envisage worse conditions for entry. And Mr Annan's warning has proved fully justified. Once within the union, a Greek south led by a deeply unpleasant populist nationalist, Tassos Papadopoulos, has been able to stand pat with impunity."
No comments:
Post a Comment