By even larger numbers, respondents envisage the Europe of 2057 as encompassing Turkey. With the issue of Turkish membership, a political hot potato in a Europe struggling to integrate the Muslims already within its borders, Italians believe most strongly that Turkey will join (58%), followed by respondents from Britain and Germany (46%), France (38%), and Spain (36%). These results are ‘surprisingly revealing’, said Timothy Garton Ash, professor of European studies at Oxford University. ‘It’s fascinating because it reveals some deep assumptions people make.’ Many Europeans say ‘Europe shouldn’t expand to include Turkey and Russia’ he said, ‘but deep down they believe it will. It shows you how much enlargement really is the story of the European Union’.
‘As underlined by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the EU accession process is the most significant modernization project of Turkey since the proclamation of the Republic.’
Global Trade and Customs Journal