Czech Debate on the EU Membership Perspectives of Turkey and Ukraine
Czech debate on the EU membership perspectives of Turkey and Ukraine David Král EUROPEUM Institute for European Policy November 2005 Acknowledgement: This report was written as part of an international project, mapping the state of debate on the EU membership perspectives of Turkey and Ukraine in four Central European countries: Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary and Slovenia and undertaken jointly by EUROPEUM, Institute of Public Affairs (Warsaw), Centre for Policy Studies at CEU (Budapest) and Peace Institute (Ljubljana). Introduction The question of further EU enlargement is an issue that remained very much on the table even after the May 2004 “Big Bang” expansion of the Union. While in the ten countries that recently acceded all the efforts thus far have been focusing on the rules and conditions of entering the exclusive club, not much space in the public debate remained for discussing the issue as to what are the further steps in EU enlargement, which countries should be considered for joining and what are the stakes of the new member states, including the Czech Republic, in the whole process. This paper will look into examining the Czech attitudes towards the EU membership perspectives of two countries: Turkey and Ukraine. It will deal with the attitudes of the political representation, including the political parties, government and diplomatic service (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) and other governmental stakeholders. Further, it will try to give an account of how the issue was treated in the media, especially in the major opinion shaping newspapers. Thirdly, it will try to assess what are the other stakeholders in the process, especially within the ranks of the civil society and how they are likely to shape the public debate.
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