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Confederation of Turkish Trade Unions Salih Kılıç President of Türk-İş “In our sphere of concern, the priority is a Social Europe...”
Nobody ignores that Turkey has been through significant stages during the process of EU membership. The entry in the EU is a priority national goal for Turkey and the most important step following Atatürk's project of modernising the Turkish Society. Turkish people expressed their preference for the European Union many years ago and the EU represents an ideal to reach in the future.
However, a survey conducted by the trade union Türk-İş on 3,000 of its members provided relevant informations which highlight Turkish people's fears and fundamental expectations towards the EU.
The first and main conclusion of this survey indicates that Turkish workers are convinced that Turkey's membership to the EU will have positive effects on their work conditions. Türk-İş constitutes a community which believes in the necessity to expand social rights around the world and considers that the EU membership will have a positive impact on the professional world in Turkey.
However, we should note that besides this positive attitude, Turkish workers have also certain fears regarding the accession to the EU. Indeed, Turkish workers consider the EU demands as part of the accession process quite insufficient for the improvement of workers' democratic rights. Turkish workers believe that the EU makes Turkey wait in the anteroom of membership and therefore should part from this negative image by deciding to give Turkey a date to start accession negotiations. In other words, while Türk-İş is convinced that EU membership will have a positive effect on Turkey's working world, it considers that some existing fears should be lifted. In the accession process, the EU hold as many responsabilities as those rested upon Turkey. Turkey's responsabilities are linked to the demands for improving living standards of the people and the country, which are constantly on TÜRK-İŞ' agenda. The demands for democratisation also imply union freedom and rights for workers. Regarding this issue, our request for improvement have always been transmitted insistently to the successive political powers. The current governement has carried out significant progress regarding the alignment of national laws and practices to the acquis communautaire, and reforms which it continues to do so. As a defender of the unitarian structure, the integrity and independence of the Turkish Republic, Ataturk's principles and heritage, a democratic, parliamentary, secular and social state, and human rights, TÜRK-İŞ will fully support the current government on democratic principles that it will adopt until Turkey's actual entry in the EU. As workers and employees, our priority in our sphere of concern is a Social Europe. The demands of the acquis communautaire in terms of working rights, which imply equality between men and women, workers'health and safety and works councils, will greatly contribute to democratise works life and improve workers' rights in our country. The European Union will express its clear intentions towards Turkey in 2004. Turkey possesses a young, dynamic and profesionnal workforce and gains a strategic importance thanks to its location at the crossroads of the Balkans, Central Asia and the Middle-East. The EU decisions bodies should fulfil their responsabilities in respect of the reforms and progress carried out by Turkey. Finally, TÜRK-İŞ expects the EU to take the decision to start negotiations as soon as possible, without being influenced by national, ideological and political matters and prejudices.q
Turks in the EU There are close to 3.8 million Turks living in the EU, 35% of whom have already acquired the nationality of their host country. 65% of a total of 270,000 Turks in the Netherlands, 23,000 of the 370,000 Turks living in Sweden, 730,0000 of the 2.6 million Turks living in Germany and close to half of the 140.000 Turks settled in Belgium have thus become nationals of their country of residence. These Turks have settled in Western Europe over the last forty years. Fourty years may seem short in history of mankind, yet it is a considerable period of time from the point of view of the history of nations as well as a person's life. Fourthy years of immigration…during which the Turks have worked alongside with local populations and contributed to the reconstruction of the European countries. Turks originally migrated to Europe for economic reasons, and has its origins in mines and factories. Today, Turks in Europe are integrated into the labour market and exercise various professions such as doctors,
policemen, soldiers, university professors, administrators, entrepreneurs etc. And aside from some disappointing experience at the European Parliament, they are relatively well represented in the national parliaments of the EU countries as in regional and local political administrations. Turks in Europe have accomplished tremendous feats in terms of integration, especially in recent years. The desire and hope that Turkey will become a member of the EU is encouraging them. They are well aware of the youth and the cultural richness that they offer and feel increasingly confortable in their "European citizen" role. Indeed, of the total of 3.8 million Turks, 1.3 million are naturalized. They are thus more numerous than Luxemburgers, Lithuanians, Latvians, Slovaks, Estonians or Greek-Cypriots.
Finally, these Turks have not only integrated in the countries they live in, but they are also contributing to the development of the European economies. In 2001, the total contribution of the Turks to EU GDP amounted to 69.9 billion Euro. Every Turk living in the EU thus contributed, on average, around 19.000 Euro per year to the GDP of the country they reside in. This is almost equal to the amount contributed by EU citizens themselves, which is around 23,200 Euro. As for Turkish entrepreneurs in the EU, their level of investment increased from 5.6 billion Euro in 1996 to 9.2 billion Euro in 2002. And this development has not yet reached its peak and will continue to increase if considering the late emergence of Turkish entrepreneurship in EU countries.