Mr President, Commissioner, I should like first of all to thank Mr Morillon very sincerely for the good work he has done and for his persistence in pushing through the demands and the most important amendments. I am able to support him on behalf of my group, and I believe it must be possible to reach an agreement with the Council. We are keen to use this instrument to promote economic and social development in Turkey. Naturally, we hope that, parallel to this – and perhaps even as a result of it – political development in Turkey towards democracy and respect for human rights, in particular respect for its own Kurdish population, will also be strengthened, and the death penalty abolished. However – and I have to say this again and again in this Chamber, and I also say it in Turkey– we are very dissatisfied with the pace of political development. We could of course say that it is not our problem, and the fact that it is not prepared to make progress in this area more obvious and is not creating the political institutions for doing so is indeed Turkey’s own biggest problem. Not so long ago, Turkey elected a new State President – a judge, and a highly respected one at that, and in fact with the support of the government. And what does the government do as one of its first acts? Over the summer, it sends its new State President a kind of emergency decree with a view to restricting some of the rights of people in government service. Then it wonders why, as a former high court judge, the President rejects the decrees he has been sent and says that the matter in question is one which Parliament must deal with, as is in fact fully to be expected in a democracy. Now, I have as little sympathy for Islamic militants as many others in this House, especially when they adopt the fundamentalist approach much in evidence in these regions and also manifested today in the debate between the Presidents of the Israeli and Palestinian Parliaments. The issue in question is one which has to be settled on a legal basis. It is just not on, using an emergency decree suddenly to remove all Islamic fundamentalists from office, as the government wants to do. Is there really a problem here? Then it is one for Parliament to deal with. The Kurdish problem has already been mentioned. In that area too, scarcely any progress has been made. Again and again, we see first positive, then negative signs. Those who know that this is a crucial problem lack the courage to do anything about it. You mentioned the Corsican problem. I have to say that, in France too, the necessary courage is called for to tackle the problem after so many years. I should like to see just a little of this courage in Turkey with a view to finding a real solution to the Kurdish problem too. Of course, there are also other problems involving minorities. The death penalty was mentioned. How many times have we heard the conviction voiced that it must be abolished, and how long will it be before the relevant steps are taken? The fact that Turkey is not taking these steps is something which cannot but disappoint those in this House – and I count myself among them – who would dearly like to see Turkey become a member of the European Union. I nonetheless believe that, if we persist, we shall achieve what we have pledged. Our pledges can, and will be, fulfilled, and precisely on the issue of promoting economic and social development. We are now waiting with bated breath to see whether Turkey will push ahead with political development on its own initiative.

Political group: PSE