Press releases

05 June 2008, Statement of the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey in response to a question. (Unofficial Translation)

The deliberations over the Article 33 of the draft law which would allow the President a choice between a referendum and Parliamentary approval by amending Article 88-5 of the Constitution, concerning mandatory submission to referendum of EU expansion, is now over in the Plenary Session of the French Parliament.

The proposed provision, which requires a referendum for states whose population constitutions at least 5% of the population of the EU, to be included in the draft bill has been approved during the National Assembly debate. The draft will be deliberated by the Senate in the following period and will be submitted to the approval of the Congress composed of the National Assembly and Senate together.

We regret the efforts of defining the features of Turkey implicitly in the French Constitution, without articulating her name. The view expressed in favour of the draft amendment by the French Minister of Justice who represents the French Government in the plenary of the National Assembly shows that the amendment is also approved by the Government.

We regret to see that a discriminatory attitude towards Turkey is being incorporated to the French Constitution despite the fact that Turkey-EU relations entail a contractual and political history surpassing 40 years and the commencement of accession negotiations with French approval with the shared objective of membership. It is unavoidable that such discriminatory approaches will damage bilateral relations and negatively influence the images of Turkey and France towards each other as well as the traditional friendship that exists amongst the people of two countries.

In light of all the above, we hope that the clause referring to Turkey in the draft law will be corrected in the period ahead, in accordance with the proposals of French politicians with common sense who have expressed their concerns and objections during the deliberations of the Article in the National Assembly. We regret the attempts of some politicians to incorporate into the French Constitution their position against Turkish membership to the EU.

Republic of Turkey - Ministry of Foreign Affairs