Marc Pierini, the head of the European Commission Delegation to Turkey, gathered with representatives of nongovernmental organizations during a meeting at the Civil Society Development Center in the Central Anatolian province of Eskişehir on Friday. Recalling ongoing debates in Turkey over secularity and religious conservatism, Pierini said the EU has no guidelines on those issues.
“For example, the EU has no policy regarding the headscarf. There is a population of 10-15 million Muslims in the EU. Regarding the expression of thought, there should be pluralism, and everybody’s living together should be maintained. A military regime and a constitution based on a military regime or a religious state has no place in the EU. Countries such as Greece, Spain and Portugal were kept at the EU’s door until their military regimes disappeared,” Pierini was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.
“It is extremely important that Turkey maintain pluralism throughout the negotiation process. If there is a movement toward a religious conservative state, then this will create problems in relation to Turkey’s negotiation process. When you look at the cases of Bulgaria and Romania, their negotiation processes lasted for 13 years. Turkey has been continuing its negotiation process for four-and-a-half years. It takes time to meet the EU’s conditions.”
