The Swedish PM on the "Turkish question"
Ritula Shah writes:
Sweden takes over the Presidency of the EU from the Czechs on Wednesday. We've been speaking to the Swedish PM Fredrik Reinfeldt about his government's priorities for the next six months. Sweden is known to be in favour of pushing ahead with Turkey's application to join the European club. But in our interview, the Swedish Prime minister made it clear that whatever the position of his country, the opposition of other key EU states (Germany and France being the obvious ones) to Turkey's membership, meant they believed there's little hope of making progress on this issue.
When President Obama visited Ankara in April, he gave clear US backing to Turkey's membership of the Union but the Turkish question is one of the most controversial and divisive for the EU. The champions of enlargement (Britain is one of them) argue that Turkey's strategic importance - as the bridge between east and west - make it vital to include the country in the Union. Its opponents point to Turkey's failure to keep up the pace of reform and say this poor predominantly muslim nation, isn't a good fit with Europe's broadly "Christian" character. The success of right wing parties, which oppose Turkish membership in this month's European elections suggest public enthusiasm may be limited too.
So, judging from our interview with the Prime minister, this is how Sweden has weighed up the issue too. But if the Swedes won't champion Turkey's accession during their time at the helm, the government in Ankara may be feeling rather pessimistic about its chances.
You can hear our interview by clicking below.
(broadcast on The World Tonight, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 4, 29 June 2009)
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