Daniel Marc Cohn-Bendit, on behalf of the Verts/ALE Group. – (DE) Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, whenever sensible people get so worked up, there has to be something behind it, or else they would not do it.

There are a couple of things of which we can perhaps remind ourselves. Up to now, we have not enlarged the European Union; we have united it.

The Turkey debate is the first real debate on enlargement, for nobody – irrespective of how they are voting – is describing the accession of Poland, the Czech Republic or Hungary as an enlargement of the European idea; they were a matter of obligation, for it was right and proper to welcome these countries after the collapse of Communism.

What we are now dealing with really is a new dimension. This is about enlargement. No matter which way we decide, this is a new dimension.

(Mr Posselt spoke without the microphone)

Just shut up, will you?

We do indeed have a new dimension to deal with, and the question with which it presents us is this: is it, post-9/11, important in terms of Europe’s interests to give Turkey the chance of accession? That question can be answered in different ways, but it must be answered by reference to the interests of the European Union, the interests of the people of Europe, rather than on the basis of emotional, cultural, or racist resentments. That is not acceptable and we do not want it!

(Mr Brok spoke without the microphone)

If you are not, if you do not think I mean you, then I do not. In that case, I mean Mr de Villiers. Stop thinking that everything refers to you! You are not the centre of the universe!

At present, the arguments used in Europe against Turkey rely on feelings, on racist resentments directed against Islam. Not all those who are against Turkey use these arguments, but they ride the wave of these sentiments. It follows that all those in the ‘no’ camp must ask themselves what their arguments unleash, and it is for that reason that I think it right to argue that Europe needs to change first, that Europe has to do its homework, and that Europe needs a constitution; these are things with which nobody disagrees. Europe cannot enlarge itself the way it is now.

As to whether Europe can, subject to the conditions in the Treaty of Nice, make itself more united by including Croatia, I too have my doubts. That is a legitimate debate. The other debate, though – the debate about whether Europe can absorb a country whose population is predominantly Muslim – is nonsensical. Today, in Europe, there are more Muslims than there are Belgians. They are already included among us. The question of how European Islam is will arise with Turkey or without it, so let us stop discussing it. Islam is the third-largest religion in Europe; whether I, as an atheist, find that to my liking is another matter.

It is for that reason that the only question to be asked at the end of this debate is what Turkey will be like in ten years’ time. Will it be a democratic state, a secular state? Is Islam European? Will this same Turkey be prepared to join with us Europeans in contending for the values that we enshrine in a constitution? If the answer to those questions is in the affirmative, then I will bid it welcome; if not, then we will have to think up something else.

(Applause)