Mr. Egemen Bagis:

We have enough places in our country and in our hearts to host them. There are approximately 7,000 Irish who live in Turkey and there are fewer than 1,500 Turks who live in Ireland.

As far as the economic situation is concerned, we are moving ahead but we never saw the European Union as an economic union. Economically, it would not make that much sense for us to join the European Union but, as far as it being the greatest peace project is concerned, Turkey must be there because we want to be able to carry on this message.

Earlier today I mentioned in a speech that when people in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia look at Turkey, they say, "Look at these Turks. They have a similar tradition, culture, religion, geography and agricultural policies and they are very much like us, but yet they are so much more advanced because they have a Government and an opposition, labour unions, a free-market economy, better schools, much better hospitals, great roads, airports and so forth, and the question is: how come we do not have what they have?" Many risk their own lives to be like Turkey and to turn their country into what Turkey represents for them, but the real strength of Turkey, the real reason Turkey is different despite so many similarities, is that it is a democracy which has been strengthened by our determination to become a member of the European Union. Most of these reforms which we have conducted in Turkey and which made Turkey what it is today were made in line with our European Union reforms. That is why this process itself is much more important than the end result. That is why we know we will not become a member tomorrow and by the way, looking at the current scene, we prefer not to become a member tomorrow.

Keeping the process alive is very important and blocking the chapters is Europe shooting itself in the foot. Let the process move. Let Turkey achieve the standards, become an important market for member states' products and services and an ally partner in international fora, and then when the time comes for the question of membership, every member state will have the right to veto any potential candidate country. I hope that the Irish Presidency will give this new vision to the European Union. Right now, Ireland's trade with Turkey is greater than its trade with Russia, Brazil and India, all of which are BRIC countries. Ireland has much more in common with us than with all of these emerging powers.

It is inconvenient for the European Union if Turkey starts to apply EU legislation by opening chapters. This relationship must be understood, that it is based on a win-win platform. We are becoming much more democratic, thanks to the European Union. We are applying the European Union's rules. We are becoming much more transparent and we are becoming much more prosperous, thanks to the European Union. However, we need not follow the European Union's guidelines. We can do it on our own too, but we would rather do it with the European Union than on our own. It is important that Turkey moves on.

We have not opened any chapters in the negotiation process in the past five Presidencies. All members present are politicians. They understand how public opinion functions. Ours cannot continue with the status quo. I am losing public opinion. Support for European Union membership is down from 78% to 35% or 40%, but if Turkey decides to withdraw its application one day, then there will be a finger-pointing game on who lost Turkey in Brussels. It is not in the interests of anyone, including Cyprus.

Many of the committee members mentioned Cyprus and I note the ambassador of the Greek Cypriot Administration is in the Gallery. It would be the biggest nightmare for Cyprus if Turkey was to decide that it was no longer interested in European Union membership. The committee should not forget that Turkey is not only one of the largest economies in Europe, but also one of the largest military powers of Europe, and the second largest in NATO. Keeping Turkey in the same club is the cheapest insurance policy for Cyprus and pushing Turkey away is, in the simplest terms, silly.