The Copenhagen Criteria - Essay Example

THE COPENHAGEN CRITERIA In June 1993 the European Council decided to extend the European Union membership. The European Council decided that the central and eastern European countries has the right to join the European Union if only if it fulfils the following three criteria: The 1992 Treaty of Maastricht: geographical criteria In June 1993: Copenhagen Criteria. The general policies decided were as follows: Political: only democratic countries should be allowed that protect human rights and respects minority rights. After the enforcement of Treaty of Amsterdam in 1999 it became one of the constitutional principles of European Union. It has been included ain the Charter of Fundamental Rights of European Union. Economic: economically strong and stable. The economy should be strong and consistent and can cope with the competitive pressure and market forces within the European Union. European Council at Maastricht Treaty that came into force on 1st November 1993 highlighted this criterion. Implementation of acquis communautaire1 (legislative): it refers to implementation of Union's legislation. Framework: specific conditions were set to negotiate with a particular candidate state. A candidate state cannot be included in the European Union until EU has enough absorption capacity. The Copenhagen criteria are a set of rules and regulations that followed by the European Council to decide whether a nation is eligible to be included into the European or not. In order to acquire the European Union membership the candidate countries should fulfil the above-mentioned three criteria. Since the enlargement process by European Council was held at Copenhagen, the name Copenhagen criteria came into existence. "Neither the EU nor the candidate countries have the power to change the geographical reality on the ground or the definitions of terms long defined in the English language in respect of physical and political geographic descriptions" (Wikipedia). The enlargement process is resolved at the beginning before taking an opinion of the application of a particular country. There is no geographical limit for any European country to join European Union. Some cases of non-European countries2 came into picture but none the less it is not possible for non- European states to attain a European Union membership. It has been stated that there is no possibility of non-European countries to become EU member but ironically some of the countries, which were geographically apart from Europe, were given European Union membership. Countries like French Guiana and Greenland, which were geographically not connected to Europe, were given EU membership. The reasons cited for their inclusion was French Guiana was an integral part of French Republic and Greenland joined the EEC as a Danish dependency. It clearly shows the double standards employed in the inclusion. One of the biggest headaches for European Union member states is inclusion of Turkey as a EU member. Turkey has been declared as a candidate for membership. At first European Union declined the inclusion of Turkey as a member. To become a EU member every country has to fulfil the Copenhagen Criteria and Turkey was well short of the above-mentioned criteria. One of the reasons for turning down Turkey's candidature was its being a non Christian state. The majority community of Turkey is Muslims. Since shariat3 law was enforced as it has been in every other Islamic country, became one of the reasons for its being declined. The human rights record of Turkey was well below the mark. They had very bad human rights record. Since it is an Islamic country there was a fear of terrorists residing in Turkey. Due to the increase in terror activities Muslim sympathisers may take advantage of the membership and might cause damage to the European Union members. They might indulge in terrorist activities. There is no gender equality in Turkey. Women were treated as slaves. They don't have any independence inside and outside of their homes. Other than their family members women should not see other men. A man has the right to marry more than once and he can keep more than one wife. When it comes to women she has no right to remarry. She is declined the basic fundamental rights. Democratic values were not given much importance. Those values were crushed by the military. Turkey parliament used its funds in building the armed forces. Most part of the declared budget was spent in the development and strengthening of armed forces. "The assertive foreign policy of Turkey towards the Middle East stands in contradiction to the Barcelona Process" (Dietrich Jung). Turkey is having problems with several other countries like its military incursions in Iraq and political instability with Armenia and Iran and Turkish-Syrian crisis. There always been a scuffle between the Arabs and the Turks. Suspicion always glooms in their relationship. Both parties don't have any faith in each other. Trust4 is the word that's always missing in their relationship. Greece always voted against Turkey. They used every opportunity to nullify the chances of Turkey becoming a European Union member. To stop Turkey's inclusion as EU member Greece decided to sponsor Greek Cypriots. Tension always escalated between these countries. Fear of war between these countries was also doing the rounds. "The EU chose to accept the entry of the divided island and its Greek part as the Republic of Cyprus5 to push forward with the accession of the Eastern European states to full membership" (Ersin Kalaycioglu). Though EU knows it would become the centre of the conflict it decided to accept Cyprus as member. Inclusion of Cyprus created political tensions in EU. When it comes resolving issues EU has a very bad record while dealing with ethnic problems in its member states. After these many years it has to be understood that EU serves well as a market or regional organisation than a political super power. These existing tensions between EU and Turkey on Cyprus will result in re-implementation of the Turkish foreign policy of the early 1950's towards Cyprus. According to this policy partition of island would take place between the Greek South and Turkish North. The existing troublesome relations result in involvement of war between "the EU member country stably divided and partly united with another member country, namely Greece, and embroiled in conflict with Turkey" (Ersin Kalaycioglu). Turkey is not stronger in terms of economy, geography, and population. Due to these factors it is unable to force its force its views and fails to impress the EU members. "Turkey is situated in the hub of the most troubled regions of the world and is connected to all those regions by history, cultural imperatives, and economic ties" (Ersin Kalaycioglu). Most of the young Turks are semiskilled and unskilled workers. Most of the Turkey's population is illiterate. The Turkish government is very keen to join EU and employing all sorts of amendments that makes them eligible for the membership. The EU stance on Turkey is pretty much criticised. Questions were asked when Cyprus was included in the EU. Neglecting Turkey's candidature shows double standards of EU. Though Slovaks human rights record was much more gloomy than the Turks EU voted in favour of Slovakia. Turkey accepts that it has bad human rights record and it economy is not strong enough, but it is not willing to tolerate double standards used by the EU members. It is also against European Union's involvement in the bi-communal negotiations. Reference Ersin Kalaycolu. (n. d.) The Political Criteria: Fair or Strict Conditionality. [online]. Available from: http://www.sant.ox.ac.uk/esc/esc-lectures/Ersin.doc. [Accessed 17 March 2006]. Dietrich Jung. (n. d. ) Turkey And Europe: Ongoing Hypocrisy [online]. Available from: http://www.ciaonet.org/wps/jud03/jud03.pdf. [Accessed 17 March 2006]. Wikipedia. (n. d.) Copenhagen criteria. [online]. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_criteria --> [Accessed 17 March 2006]. Europa Glossary. (n. d.) Accession criteria (Copenhagen criteria). [online]. Available from: http://europa.eu.int/scadplus/glossary/accession_criteria_copenhague_en.htm --> [Accessed 17 March 2006]. Europa Glossary. (n. d.) Community acquis. [online]. Available from: http://europa.eu.int/scadplus/glossary/community_acquis_en.htm --> [Accessed 17 March 2006]. Read More