As the future members of the European Commission are being heard at the headquarters of the European Parliament (the last “interrogation” is scheduled for 11 October while the vote on Barroso’s executive will take place in Strasbourg during the session of 25-28 October), the EU is turning its attention to the subject of the start of negotiations on Turkish membership. Once the Commission has made its pronouncement on 6 October, attention will turn to the verdict of the European Council, scheduled for 17 December. In the meantime, the independent commission that was called too study this subject has published its final report. The document is entitled “Turkey in Europe. More than a promise” and bears the signatures of a group of politicians who have held important roles at European or national level: these include the Finnish Martti Ahtisaari, the former commissioners Hans van den Broek (Netherlands), Emma Bonino (Italy), and Marcelino Oreja (Spain), the former French prime minister Michel Rocard and the former Polish prime minister Bronislaw Geremek, as well as the former director of the London School of Economics Anthony Giddens. The document covers political, economic, juridical and cultural questions linked to an eventual entry of Ankara into the EU, and concludes that if the candidate State manages to satisfy the Copenhagen criteria for new entries, it will be difficult to refuse the request. The document is available in European Union offices.
