FRENCH SENATE DELIVERS BLOW TO ANTI-TURKEY PLAN
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today’s zaman, turkey
june 12 2008

The foreign affairs committee of the french senate yesterday cancelled
a planned constitutional amendment that makes a referendum on the
eventual accession of turkey to the european union compulsory and
which has been described by ankara as product of "a discriminative
approach" toward turkey by certain french politicians.

late last month, the french national assembly, the lower house of
the french parliament, passed a package of constitutional amendments
including a provision to make a referendum obligatory for accepting
new eu member countries with populations over 5 percent the bloc’s
total population, which currently stands at about 500 million. with
its population of 70 million, eu candidate turkey appears to be the
specific target of the clause.

the provision needed to be approved first by the senate and a majority
of both houses. yet a french senator had already said last week that
a significant number of senators from the french ruling party were
opposed to the amendment.

while announcing cancellation of the planned amendment in a written
statement, the foreign affairs committee said the amendment would
deliver serious damage to france’s bilateral relations with turkey.

the amendment "might be considered as being against turkey, which
is a friend and ally country, and thus might deal serious damage to
diplomatic relations between france and turkey," the statement warned.

The committee, discussing the amendment upon a proposal by its
chairman, Josselin de Rohan, proposed that the amendment be deleted
from the text. The committee decision, however, does not mean that
it will be dropped entirely from the agenda of the French legislative
body.

During a plenary session debate on the constitutional reform planned
to take place next week, a proposal for deleting the amendment
will be introduced. If approved by the Senate, the amendment will
be pulled out of the reform package without being discussed at the
plenary session. Nonetheless, any member of the Senate can introduce
a similar amendment and carry this amendment to a plenary session
debate at the Senate.

Sources from the Senate say the amendment’s eventual fate is
closely tied to the stance of Ã~Ilysée Palace as well as that of
the government. Justice Minister Rachida Dati had supported the
amendment when it was debated at the French National Assembly, while
Prime Minister Francois Fillon was reportedly annoyed by it. Sources
close to the government have added, however, that it was difficult
for the government to object to an amendment supported by President
Nicolas Sarkozy.

Sarkozy, the former leader of the UMP, is a vocal opponent of
Turkey’s bid to join the EU, saying it does not belong to Europe. The
constitutional reform package originally abolished a clause calling
for a referendum on all future accessions to the EU and left the
decision on the matter to the president. But UMP lawmakers, keen
not to lose the vote of the French-Armenian electorate, pressed for
guarantees against Turkey’s possible accession to the EU and proposed
the amendment in question.

Jean-Pierre Raffarin, a senator from the ruling Union for a Popular
Movement (UMP) and former prime minister of France, last week told
French RCF radio that a constitutional provision specifically targeting
a certain country was a mistake. "We have talked about this issue in
our group. Many members of our group are against this amendment,"
Raffarin said then. "A certain country cannot be pointed out in a
national constitution."

French State Secretary for European Affairs Jean-Pierre Jouyet has
also warned that the plan to submit Turkey’s bid to join the EU to
a referendum is an "insult" that could spark a serious rift between
Paris and Ankara.

Also last week, the Turkish capital labeled French lawmakers’ approval
of the particular amendment as "odd," while warning Paris over the
negative consequences of adoption of the clause by the French Senate on
"traditional friendship between the peoples of the two countries."

Turkey is annoyed by the "discriminative approach toward Turkey
although accession negotiations between Turkey and the EU began with
the common target of full membership and with approval of France too,"
the Foreign Ministry said in a written statement. The statement by
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Burak Ozugergin was issued in response
to an official question.

"It is inevitable that this kind of discriminative approach will
harm our bilateral relations and will also have a negative impact
on images of Turkey and France in each country as well as on the

–Boundary_(ID_rA+sh2j/u/seXJObwwbCqw)–