Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

From time to time since the Helsinki Council, various politicians throughout Europe have articulated different positions on this. It has been a lengthy process. We have to be careful and sensitive in how we approach this challenging issue. As a small open economy, we depend very much on liberalisation of world trade. We need to export our goods and services to create jobs here. The European Union began with six member states and now has 27 member states with a population of 500 million people. We export to many of those countries and our exports grow. Our combined trade on goods with Turkey is at €800 million and in services it is at €466 million. The Turkish economy is growing at approximately 10% per annum, notwithstanding the current global crisis, and it has a population of 72 million. I accept its GDP is way below that of Europe-----

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