In the following short essay I am going to discuss the problem related to the topic of EU Enlargement, taking into consideration the extract, our experience in interviewing young people about their knowledge and opinion about European politics, the interpretation of data carried out by the different groups in my class.
Analyzing the extract, we can see that it speaks about the Copenhagen criteria, established in 1993 by the Copenhagen European Council. They establish that a country applying should (to the aim to entry in EU):
The Copenhagen criteria were written with the aim of establishing common criteria for all Member States, but the Copenhagen European Council was convocated to the purpose to discuss the problem of EU Enlargement to Central and Eastern Europe.
After the council, many countries applied reforms, with the purpose of respecting all the Copenhagen criteria. But there are other problems: there are the “unwritten criteria”, that worry the populations so much.
Turkey’s entry in EU is now in phase of debate, because it has problems with the unwritten criteria (geographical location, poverty, State’s size, presence of Islamic religion).
The unwritten criteria represent the reason why people generally think that Turkey shouldn’t enter. As I could read and listen speaking with many people, and reading the interpretation of data carried out by the group in my class, people are worried about Turkey’s entry, especially thinking of Islam.
Personally I didn’t interview young people, but I read the results of the other interviews, and I could see that the level of knowledge is very low. But, when the same people, with a low level of knowledge are supposed to take a position about Turkey’s entry, he/she shows to have an opinion.
This is what I could see talking with many people about Turkey’s entry, and I think that their opinion is not supported by a reasonable level of knowledge, and so I think it is worthless.
Personally, I think that people generally don’t understand that EU Enlargement is a process, is not one single development. They don’t understand that the process of Enlargement will going on, even if they don’t take an active participation.
I think that people generally have the presumption of taking a position, even if they have the consciousness that they have not the necessary information to express a critical point – of view.
As the extract says, “enlargement is no longer a question of “if” but “when””, so now people are debating on Turkey’s entry, but this is useless, because the decisions are established by the Council, and they have not the level of knowledge necessary to contrast with the Council.