Ukrainian president visits fellow EU aspirant Turkey
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-06-08 16:19

The Ukrainian president's visit Tuesday to Turkey brought together two EU aspirants who represent the hopes and fears of the "new Europe" — poor countries on the fringes who desperately want to be part of a bloc increasingly fearful of embracing them.

Viktor Yushchenko's trip comes just a week after the stunning rejection by voters in the Netherlands and France of the EU constitution — decisions that were in part a repudiation of the club's eastward expansion toward poor countries on the fringes.

Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer (L) and his Ukrainian counterpart Viktor Yushchenko (R) pose for the media after a welcoming ceremony in Ankara June 7, 2005. Yushchenko is on a three-day official visit to Turkey.[Reuters]

Yushchenko stressed that he saw EU membership as a "strategic target" for his country and after meeting with Turkey's president said "the two countries' political will is the same," referring to their drives for EU inclusion.

But Turkey and Ukraine embody what many EU voters increasingly fear: They are big countries with a combined population of 120 million that could drain the bloc's already strained resources and send millions of migrants to European cities.

For millions of people in Ukraine, a former Soviet republic, and for Turkey, which has been plagued by military coups, the EU represents the promise not only of greater wealth but a chance to anchor democracy.

"When people ask me, 'Why Europe?' I say because people always want to reach higher standards, not lower standards. We know that economically, politically and from a human point of view, the highest standards of living are in Europe," Yushchenko said after his meetings with Turkish leaders.

But a quick look at the map and the economies of the countries shows why the European Union is concerned about possible membership for Turkey and Ukraine.

Allowing them in would extend the EU's borders to Russia, Iran, Iraq and Syria — exposing it to some of the most volatile parts of the world.

The Netherlands, an EU member, has a per capita gross domestic product of $26,120. The figure for Turkey is about one tenth of that while Ukraine's gross domestic product is just $850 per person.

Turkey is scheduled to open accession talks in October and Turkish and EU leaders say those talks will go on as scheduled.

After the failed referendums, "the European Union must deal with how to anchor these two countries in the European Union with no exclusion but also not total inclusion," said Huseyin Bagci, professor of international relations at Middle East Technical University.

In some ways, Turkey has a big head start on EU membership compared to Ukraine. Turkey has been westernizing for more than a century and has been pushing to join Europe for almost 50 years. Ukraine is still struggling to shake off Russian and Soviet influence.

Turkey sends more than half its exports to EU countries, while EU members represent only a third of Ukraine's total trade.

But, unlike Ukraine, overwhelmingly Muslim Turkey raises strong cultural fears in Europe toward integrating the country that grew from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire, which for hundreds of years battled Christian Europe for supremacy.

Some analysts say those concerns of cultural differences could play even more heavily on European voters than economic concerns.

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