December 12, 2002	Thursday	Shawwal 7, 1423

PARIS, Dec 11: Breaking ranks for the first time with President Jacques Chirac, the man who named him to his post, French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said that as far as he is concerned, the European Union — which meets later this week at Copenhagen — should postpone its debate on the admission of Turkey as a new member country.

And this, he adds, because recent polls indicate that Turkey’s admission as the 26th or 27th member country of the EU seems to be increasingly opposed, at least according to recently-published polls, not only by the French but by Europeans as a whole.

An IPSOS poll done for the Le Figaro daily newspaper said indeed that 56 per cent of the French said they don’t want Turkey to become a member of the EU in the first place. Interestingly, the very same number — 56 per cent —- said they support the enlargement of the EU to the 10 countries who are scheduled to become members in 2004.

As for Turkey, they said, that’s a wholly different matter, a position that the French PM seemed to reflect when he spoke out against the advisibility of admitting Turkey, especially as fully two-thirds of Mr Raffarin’s own rightwing electoral base told IPSOS that it doesn’t want Turkey to be admitted in the first place.

Speaking at Orleans, before a forum on Europe, Mr Raffarin said that in his estimation, the EU might first think about admitting the next ten members, who are scheduled to adhere in 2004, and then consider the advisibility of admitting Turkey in July 2005, the date that is expected to be formally proposed at Copenhagen by President Jacques Chirac and Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, this according to a common position on the question worked out last week during one of their regular joint dinners.

Recently, President Chirac had gone so far as to said that in his eyes “Turkey has its place in the European Union,” but that first it would have to undertake certain changes in its laws and its constitution making it clear that the country adhered to the same ideas on human rights as the other EU countries.

According to the IPSOS poll two-thirds of the French who identified themselves as being Rightwing said they were opposed to Turkey’s admission to the EU, as opposed to only 47 per cent of those who consider themselves as being of the Left.

Of those who support Turkey’s admission, 51 per cent said it was to allow the country to “consolidate” the development of democracy on its soil.