Letting Turkey into the EU Would Be a Disaster

So much for the Prime Minister demonstrating he is serious about reforming the EU! David Cameron has announced it is still his ‘long-standing goal’ to bring Turkey into the European Union – despite the complete disaster this would be for Britain and many other EU Member States. 

Turkey is not politically, economically or culturally prepared to join the EU, yet certain member states seem bent on bringing them in. Clearly the federalists’ work will not be done until the “European” Union reaches east to the Bering Straits and south to the Cape of Good Hope!

Cameron’s willing support of EU expansion, despite its detrimental effect on Britain, shows he will never win any kind of real results if any renegotiations are attempted – that’s of course if the Conservatives are re-elected at the general election.

After failing to cut net immigration to the tens of thousands as he has previously promised, Cameron now wants to grant the 81 million people living in Turkey freedom to move to Britain. Latest figures show unemployment in Turkey (at 10.1 percent) is far higher than in Britain (at 6 percent), whilst the average monthly wage in Turkey is just 23 percent of the average monthly wage in Britain. A high proportion of these 81 million Turks will therefore flock to Britain as others from new Member States are doing.

If this wasn’t worrying enough, by relaxing our border controls with Turkey we would be effectively doing the same with its neighbouring countries, such as war-torn Syria and Iraq. It is no secret the borders between Turkey, Syria and Iraq are virtually non-existent. With ISIS jihadists passing between these three countries every day, can Britain really afford to arrange free movement of people with Turkey?

The immense size of Turkey’s population would also damage Britain’s influence – already extremely weak – in the EU’s Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. The way it works there is voting powers are linked to population size.

As a country with a larger population than any of the other 28 Member States of the EU, Turkey would have the lion’s share of MEPs and a much greater voting strength in the Council of Ministers. Britain’s vote share in the Council of Ministers would drop from its current 12.5 percent to less than 11 percent, robbing us of what little influence we have.

More importantly, given the brutal measures used to suppress the riots in Turkish cities this past year, just what kind of people would the Turkish Government choose to sit round the table with our Prime Minister and the leaders of Europe? Moreover, the Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey – Bülent Arinc – recently told Turkish women they should not be allowed to laugh in public. Is this the sign of a country which has is culturally compatible with liberal countries such as ours?

‘Cast-iron’ Dave is right the EU is “not stronger, but weaker” without Turkey, but he is completely out of touch with the majority of the Great British Public who want a weaker relationship with the EU for Britain. One based purely on economic co-operation and trade. Cameron is clearly not listening to us, as unfortunately, a purely economic relationship is only possible by leaving the EU and arranging simple free trade agreements.

According to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, there will be a 5-year break before any new countries join the EU. We must hope our chance of an In/Out referendum in which we can vote to Get Britain Out of the EU comes before 2019.

Luke Stanley, Research Executive at Get Britain Out