Turkey and the European Union – How forgetful does Mr Cameron think we are?

By Claude Moraes MEP / @claudemoraesmep

David Cameron has called for Turkish membership of the European Union. It was part of his gaffe strewn foreign policy summer that began with statements in Turkey and India and ended with the almost bizarre statement that Iran has nuclear weapons.

Even Conservatives are not sure whether there is any real strategy behind some of this “plain speaking” (although the Iran remark cast doubt on this), but it’s important to unpack what Cameron is saying to reveal not just a gaffe or offence to a particular country, but the sheer hypocrisy of the positions he is taking.

I fully agree with Cameron when he calls for Turkish membership of the EU. But as a Labour MEP, and a strong advocate of the last Labour government’s support for Turkish accession, it is also very puzzling. Which part of the Conservative Party does Mr Cameron claim to represent?

There are numerous reasons why Turkish membership of the EU would prove beneficial. But in calling for Turkey’s accession, Cameron cannot claim to speak for the eurosceptic Conservative right. The Tory right pales at the thought of British membership of the European Union, let alone Turkish, and so we can safely rule them out. In fact, Mr Cameron will have to continue appeasing the right of his party with bizarre alliances in the European Parliament, rubbing shoulders with unsavoury right-wing partners who have illustrated their racism and homophobia, something which has deeply irritated Cameron’s centre-right French and German “allies”.

One possibility for the policy is that Mr Cameron’s position on Turkey represents his party’s business wing.

Perhaps this makes more sense. Kenneth Clarke and others have always known a business opportunity when they see one and Turkey’s seventy four million people are on track to have the second fastest growing economy in the world by 2017. But we can soon see that Mr Cameron’s announcement makes no sense, even in business terms. For one, Mr Cameron reserves the right to hold back a European Turkey’s right to the free-movement of its people. And for another, the Conservatives plan to introduce an arbitrary cap on the number of non-EU citizens entering the UK. From a business perspective, it would make no difference in Tory Britain whether Turkey was a European member state or not.

So why push for Turkish membership?

David Cameron has calculated that Turkey accession talks have been almost permanently stalled by Germany and France. He knows that accession is not on the cards anytime soon. This gives him the chance to play the pro-American, pro-NATO case for friendship towards Turkey, while avoiding the difficult issues for his own party such as the free movement of Turkish workers in the rest of the EU. He swerves the question, which is an issue on the right of his party, of any cultural difference that Turkish membership would make. Many on the right, including in Germany and France, privately do not want a “Muslim country”, albeit a secular state, joining the EU. David Cameron avoided the issue altogether in the safe knowledge that it is not one that he will have to deal with for possibly many years to come. But there is a clear alternative – Labour’s long-standing, pro-Turkish position.

First, It is important to have an EU which looks outwards to new strategic realities, one built on a ‘community of values’ rather being an ‘exclusive Christian club’. Many Tories could never accept this vision.

Second, the improvement of human rights and free speech in Turkey – partly a result of the Copenhagen criteria – is something Labour has stressed, and something for which the current coalition can hardly take credit.

Third, it was under the last Labour government that the EU’s rotating Presidency formally reopened negotiations on Turkish membership in 2005. Such a move is all very well for Mr Cameron to support in hindsight, but virtually impossible for him to ever back with a unified Conservative Party.

As ever, there are two Tory lines – one that seems to make sense, and the reality which doesn’t. There is however a clear Labour alternative, one that is both substantial and workable.

On this basis, I look forward to not only supporting Turkish membership of the European Union, but also a time when we once again have a Labour government able to continue supporting Turkish accession for all the right reasons.