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Interview with Tom JENKINS Senior Advisor at the European Trade Union Confederation The ETUC supports Turkey's accession
to the EU By Aslı ÖZÇERİ ü What is ETUC's position on Turkey's membership to the EU? Do you think that accession negotiations should start at the beginning of next year?
ü The ETUC has discussed Turkey on several occasions over the years and has been, in general, very favourable to Turkey belonging to the European Union. Our Executive Committee will discuss Turkey's accession in the autumn and will probably adopt a more in-depth position on the issue. We have four Turkish organisations among our affiliates, two of which have been members for many years, and there is no argument that Turkey is not part of Europe. For our organisation, that is a geographical fact. We have also said that there is no religious impediment to Turkey belonging to Europe.
The last time our Executive Committee made a statement on Turkey's accession, just prior to the Copenhagen European Summit in December 2002, they called for a date to be set for negotiations to start with Turkey. So, in general and in principle, there are no problems. Of course, when we start going deeper into the questions from a trade union point of view, freedom of association and trade unions rights loom as big issues in Turkey. Although there has been some progess, these are issues were a lot remains to be done. Generally we all agree that Turkey must fully fulfill its obligations under the ILO conventions e.g. regarding freedom of association and the freedom to bargain collectively. There are important segments of workers in Turkey who just do not have access to theses rights and we need progress on that. The ETUC has looked at questions of democracy, but we have not in the past discussed issues that are not directly trade union aspects, such as the place of the military. The question of Cyprus has also come up from time to time. Here again we have affiliates from both the north and the south of Cyprus (Türk-Sen on the Turkish side and SEK from the Greek side) and we do provide a forum for meetings. The European trade union movement is one of the few places where all sides can meet together and talk frankly without being too political, but rather by looking at the realities and at what is in the interest of our members. To sum up, I cannot anticipate the detailed position of our Executive Committee but I am convinced that it will contain a pretty positive appreciation of Turkey's accession to the EU. ü What do you think about critics arguing that Turkey is "too big, too poor, with dangerous borders and insufficiently "European" to join the European Union"? ü On the whole this is part of the economic argument. The EU has just had quite a big enlargement and if you look at the GDP of the countries which have joined you can see that they are quite low compared even to those of Portugal and Greece which were the lowest before. Thus, absorbing the new entrants fully will take some time and there are fears as part of the current enlargement that will need to be dealt with. Enlargement does not mean that employers will automatically delocate from Western Europe to Central and Eastern Europe. But this is certainly a fear among some of our members, and it also explains why, in the course of the accession negociations, we pressed for the acquis communautaire to be fully in place before membership. And as well as laws being adopted, they need to be applied in reality. Introducing, e.g health and safety provisions, which are based on European law, can be quite onerous and difficult for some countries to achieve but we feel that you cannot start having derogations on such issues. Besides, the EU social aquis relating to workers' rights, health and safety, gender equality etc, is a set of minimum standards and we naturally aspire to have more than the minimum standards set by the European legislation.
It will be quite a fight to get the eight Central European countries to reach average EU GDP levels, and in the case of Turkey this process will be even more difficult. Also, if you look at the question of the budgetary ressources, you realize that the EU budget is infinitesimal compared to national budgets. Countries only contribute up to 1.2 per cent of their GDP, and indeed some countries are pressing to cut this to one per cent. If this is the only amount you have for transfers including those to help on social development and the reduction of regional disparities, it is not much at all. So one should be realistic. In the case of Turkey, it will not be an "agreed today-done tomorrow" type of agreement. It will be a long process but you have to see the light at the end of the tunnel, even though it can be a dark tunnel, even discouraging at times. That is the way I look at it. So basically the bottom line is economics. If Turkey were a rich country few people would have a problem with other aspects such as religion and cultural differences. As regards religion, there have been discussions within the Europan Convention as to whether God should be mentioned in the EU Constitution. We are rather against bringing religion into these relationships: it is something for the individuals rather than for the States. On the other hand, many people in the EU do see that Turkey is an important country in terms of security and that, geographically, it is at a turning point between Europe, Asia and the Middle East. These realities will also be taken into account in December.ü According to you, what will be Turkey's main contributions to the EU?
ü People. In terms of Turkey's contribution to the EU, cultural differences must be seen as a good thing. Diversity should help rather than hinder, but the economics are as always the key issue. If you look at the demographics, at the moment "Old Europe" is ageing and migration is a big issue. We are told that we need lots of migrants to make up for the ageing population and to pay for their pensions. Handling migration is difficult but I do not believe that simply raising barriers against migrants is the way to handle the issue. People end up coming through anyway. I do not think that the "guest arbeiter" kind of approach (of having people coming over and then being sent back) is the right one either. Germany adpoted this approach for many years only to give it up afterwards.
So the question of movement of labour is central. There are concerns and there are fears. And another problem is the way in which right wing parties within the EU are manipulating these issues. It is incumbent on trade unions - and we do work with our affiliates on both national and European levels - to combat racism and to try to explain the benefits of having workers from various countries coming in. This issue will come up in the case of Turkey as it has in the previous enlargement, and different countries will have different visions. It is perhaps easier for countries such as mine, the UK, who are not on the borders than for others. We cannot just dismiss these concerns and we must rather concentrate on trying to explain to people the benefits of immigration. The ETUC's position on the question of restrictions on movements of labour is that, if any transition period is deemed necessary, it should be as short as possible. Our view as trade unions is that we must be able to access workers from the new Member States and organise them. To organise workers who do not have the proper documentation is very difficult since they will not show themselves because if they do, they might get deported. At the same time they are the most vulnerable ones since unscrupulous employers obviously can exploit them. So finding ways of having a legal workforce is a way of having a workforce that we can organise. Ours is an organising agenda enabling people to have minimum standards and wages through becoming trade union members and representatives. ü ETUC comprises four Turkish trade unions. Are these unions actively contributing to ETUC’s work and how do you assess their role in obtaining social improvements in Turkey? ü We have four Turkish trade unions affiliated to ETUC: Türk-İş, DISK, KESK and Hak-İş. Türk-İş was among the first members of ETUC. Then DISK came in shortly after while Kesk and Hak-İş are more recent affiliates. All of them are represented in our Executive Committee and able to contribute to all the discussions taking place there. The work of trade unions is primordial in Turkey. A strong trade union movement allowed to work everywhere in Turkey would help raise the standards of living of Turkish workers and would make it easier to convince those on the European side who have doubts on Turkey's accession. Trade unions do help countries to become rich in the same way as companies can do. If you look at the main companies, the most productive ones are the ones which recognise trade unions. Unions are a central part of democracy, so we are moving on the trade union agenda in Turkey and pressing for them to have the legal base to organise the workforce and, in doing that, reinforcing Turkey's European credentials.