Original question:

What direct democracy instruments have been or might be used within the European Union regarding the future full membership of Turkey?

ACE Network Facilitator's response:

Generally, it should be noted that in addition to provisions at the EU level, there might be provisions for direct democracy at national level, which of course vary from country to country. The scope for direct democracy at EU level would probably increase with the proposed “Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe” (commonly referred to as the “European Constitution”), which includes the introduction of the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI), by which a certain number of European citizens would be able to outline a proposal for and initiate a referendum. Due to rejection in a couple of member states referendums, the ratification process was not carried out as planned and its' future is now highly uncertain. Some regard the French rejection of the European Constitution also as an indication of a strong opinion against the next enlargement. Furthermore, NGOs and others are campaigning for various matters to be raised as European citizens’ initiatives; even though, as explained above, the legal framework for this instrument is not yet provided. Please find a list of these initiatives on Democracy International's website. As you will find, among these is a petition by the “Voice for Europe”, which is against the accession of Turkey to the EU. 

Turkey made its first application to join what was then the European Economic Community (EEC) in July 1959 and applied for full membership of the EU in 1987. Please find more information on the enlargement process at the web site of the European Commission. In October 2005, entry negotiations with Turkey (and Croatia) formally began, but the debate is however not likely to cease. For instance, Voice for Europe decided to continue its campaign, in the shape of a new petition equally addressed to the European Commission, the European Council and the European Parliament, calling for a withdrawal of the enlargement with Turkey. Some EU member states have been more negative towards the accession of Turkey, such as Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Slovakia.

In both France and Austria, politicians have already announced that they intend to hold referendums on the matter. Both these countries only have provisions for binding referendums; i.e. the result is legally binding on the government. Considering the current opinion in Europe on this issue (for example, see the Standard Eurobarometer opinion polls), such referendums in would in many countries have good prospects for negative results; which might create a scenario similar to the Constitution for Europe ratification process. Also after the EU and Turkey have agreed on the terms of the membership, the EU citizens will be consulted; perhaps through parliamentary ratification, but it might as well be through public referenda.

For more information on direct democracy, please see the ACE comparative data topic area “Direct Democracy”, where you can find information on direct democracy practice on the country-by-country basis as well as aggregated results and comparisons between countries. Here you can look for the provisions for each EU member state. On International IDEA's web site, some other relevant links regarding direct democracy are listed. 

The opinions expressed by the ACE Network Facilitator do not necessarily reflect those of the ACE Partner organizations.

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