Germany, France disagree on Turkey’s EU accession

NTVMSNBC

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Europe’s ongoing economic crisis shows that the European Unioncannot take on a country the size of Turkey, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe recently said, according to private broadcaster NTV.

“The fiscal crisis proves again that our political project for the union cannot handle the membership of a country of Turkey’s size. Turkeyitself has begun looking beyond the EU, too,” Juppe told reporters during a speech in Strasbourg.

Juppe further stated Turkey should focus on political dialogue with the union, something he had told Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu as well. He also told reporters that France was open to negotiations on visa privileges to Turkey if a deal could be made on the issue of illegal immigration.

Promises should be kept, says German president 

German President Christian Wulff also spoke on Turkey’s EU membership recently, stating that EU members should hold up to their commitments in starting the negotiation process for Turkey in accordance with the “pacta sunt servanda” (agreements must be kept) principle.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel also agreed that promises should be kept. However, she further stated that she disagreed with the previous administration’s decision to allow Turkey to begin accession talks.