February 23, 2004: Angela Merkel's visit to Turkey last week highlights the importance of a possible Turkish membership in the European Union (EU) for German politics. During her two-day visit, Mrs. Merkel, chairman of Germany's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) opposition party, offered Turkish prime minister Erdogan a "privileged partnership" with the EU instead of full membership. The purpose of her visit was to explain the CDU position on Turkish EU membership to Turkish political leaders.

In his response which he described as "totally open", Erdogan rejected the idea and declared that the EU was not a "Christian club." Erdogan confirmed that his country has fulfilled all the requirements set at the EU Copenhagen summit in December 2002. Cuneyd Zapsu, a leading member of Erdogan's party and his most influential foreign policy advisor, remarked that Merkel's proposal was relatively new and was not the official position of the EU, which is the only one that Turkey has to consider. According to Zapsu, there will either be negotiations on full membership or no negotiations at all, since Turkey is not interested in any alternative to full EU membership.

Merkel rejected the notion that the CDU had ever considered the EU to be be a "Christian club." She also did not question whether Turkey had fulfilled the requirements of the Copenhagen meeting. Instead, Merkel pointed out "that the problems were more with the current EU," which, according to her, would simply be overtaxed by admitting Turkey as a full member. Merkel believes that the German government has not fully informed the public what the consequences of Turkish membership would be. For example, as an EU member Turkey would immediately have the 2nd largest number of seats in the European Parlament, and with a projected population of 89 million by the year 2015 would eventually replace Germany as the country with the most delegates in Strasbourg.

The CDU and its smaller sister party, the Christian Socialist Union (CSU), will make the question of Turkish EU membership a campaign issue in this year's state elections and in the next national election, scheduled for 2006. At party conventions in late 2002, CDU and CSU delegates approved resolutions by a wide margin opposing Turkey's entry into the EU.

German chancellor Gerhard Schröder supports Turkish EU membership. His Social Democratic Party (SPD) colleague and ex-chancellor Helmut Schmidt does not. Schmidt sees Turkish EU membership as an "opening of the door for a similarly plausible full membership for other Islamic countries in Africa and the Middle East" ("Die Zeit", No. 50, 2002).

Read our report on the December 2002 Copenhagen summit: Who's afraid of Turkey?