Ankara, Turkey
“Turkey has taken a giant step forward,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said this week as his country began formal talks on joining the E.U. The long-planned accession talks were almost derailed at the last minute by objections from Austria, which proposed that Turkey be limited to second-tier membership. After late-night diplomatic wrangling, Austria backed down, and the talks proceeded. Austria’s hesitance reflected a general European reluctance to admit a huge, majority Muslim country into the E.U. The earliest Turkey can join is 2015; by then it’s projected to have a larger population, and therefore more E.U. votes, than any other E.U. member.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
