Word: membership
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...report published Sept. 7 by a panel of European grandees. Chaired by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work as a mediator, the Independent Commission on Turkey says some E.U. leaders are mining popular fears over the specter of Turkish membership. "Attacks on the E.U.-Turkey process [have become] a proxy for popular concerns about immigration, worries about jobs, fears of Islam and a general dissatisfaction with the E.U.," the report says. "Negative statements by some European leaders ... and obstacles put in the way of the negotiations have all but derailed the process...
...said that Turkey can never be allowed to join the E.U. The two leaders came to power after the E.U.'s unanimous decision in 2004 to formally start accession talks with Turkey. But they instead talk of Turkey having a "privileged relationship" with the E.U. rather than full E.U. membership. (Read "Target Germany: A Second Front in Afghanistan...
...This hostility has not been missed by the Turkish. Support in Turkey for membership fell from over 70% in 2004 to 42% by the end of last year. The sense of being excluded has further demoralized Turkish reformers, the report says, leading to "a regrettable slowdown in the reform process" that is a condition of membership. This, in turn, feeds skeptics in European countries who point to the lack of reforms as proof that Turkey is unworthy of joining the E.U. It's a vicious circle that jeopardizes Turkish domestic reforms and hurts the E.U.'s own interests...
...message: that the creation of green jobs could revitalize America's eroding blue-collar class. I can't judge if some of his past statements and actions - his signature on a letter suggesting former President George W. Bush might have allowed the Sept. 11 attacks to occur, his 1990s membership in an avowedly anti-capitalist group - should have disqualified him for government service. But I do know his resignation is a loss for the environmental movement, and I think, for the country as well. Because Van Jones was right about green jobs. (Watch an interview with Van Jones about...
This is heady stuff. (Imagine a putative British prime minister talking openly about American decline and looking forward to Russia's membership in the EU.) It is all enough to make one wonder how well-founded the U.S.-Japan relationship really is, and how resilient to a changing global environment it is likely...