Why does David Cameron really want Turkey to be in the EU?

Many have been praising David Cameron for his statements regarding pushing forward further plans for Turkey to join the EU based on the view point that this will help the EU to exert more pressure on Turkey to comply with human rights records and in addition it will help the image of many of these western countries in the Islamic world.

There is definitely a case for both these points and it is especially true that EU membership could be a very effective "carrot" to help Turkey improve it's human rights record. However the most important element behind a "carrot" is that it can only be given once certain achievements have been made. Camerons statements have seamed, to me, to suggest that compliance would only have to take place after membership has been achieved is a huge mistake. I am certain that there would be standards that Turkey would have to achieve but it is usual that standards are not met and yet EU procedures continue. The case in point being the financial standards for the Euro.

As such it is important to having strong rhetoric at the start of this process to ensure that meeting these standards is embedded into the thoughts of both the EU and Turkey.

However is there perhaps another less altruistic reason for Cameron seeking Turkey Integration? Does Cameron want Turkey to join the EU to slow down integration within the EU? Major has come out and said that he viewed Balklands integration as a way of slowing down further intergration of current EU members and hence he was such a strong supporter.


It worked as well! Since the Balkans states were granted membership there has been a decade of debates over what issues should be supra-national and intergovernmental. There have been arguments about keeping the veto, about how many votes in the parliament each state should have and many of these measures have been held up by various countries at different times. It's common sense that the more different partners involved the more varied the view points and the harder to get consensus.

As such we should be wary of Camerons statements, this is a great way to delay Europe integration (not that is necasserily a bad thing at the moment) and direct the focus of the EU soley on getting Turkey to comply with human rights standards. Considering his anti Europe stance it would seam to be a cleaver political move.