There are much more reforms than this along necessary. Those reforms are incredibly hard allready now (see constitution), with another member of the size, the nationalistic stance and the diversity of Turkey it simply will become impossible.

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When the Nazis came for the communists I remained silent, I was no communist.
When the Nazis came for the Unionists I remained silent, I was no Unionist.
When the Nazis came for the Social Democrats I remained silent, I was no Social Democrat.
When the Nazis came for the Jews I remained silent, I was no Jew.
When the Nazis came for me, there was no one left who could protest.

An opinion of a Greek journalist quoted by another Greek journalist :

“We think that these stupid Westerners brought Cyprus into the EU and left Turkey out so that the power tilts in our favor, writes another commentator, Giorgos Karypidis, in the same newspaper. “We think that if Turkey wants to enter the EU, they are obliged to make concessions on Cyprus. This is dangerous nonsense. Turkey will not make any substantial concession in Cyprus, but Cyprus may well become the pretext for the EU to reject Turkey by powers that do not care in the least about Greece or Cyprus. The Greek government must not allow the Cyprus issue to be used as a pretext for those who oppose the European perspective of Turkey. After all, it is not Papadopoulos who runs Greece,” writes Giorgos Karipidis in his column.

Ariana Ferentinou, The view of the EU from Thessaloniki does not look good
May 8, 2006 Turkish Daily news.

No need to that much time, surely in the next decade or sonner you will have been shown the middle finger.

ever been to Romania ? See European hypocrisy works best when a "muslim" country is being dealt with.

Actually makes sense when one considers people like you as "european". Because Euro-Lilliputs like yourself for too long have gotten used to looking down upon other cultures and yelling out their superiority.To have the 'barbaric' 'infidel' Turks on board and consider it European must be horrendous!

Hector, I would have a honest question for you.

What are the motivations in your opinion why Turkey and the majority of its citizens want to join the EU? I would be very pleased to hear the turkish perspective once.

__________________
When the Nazis came for the communists I remained silent, I was no communist.
When the Nazis came for the Unionists I remained silent, I was no Unionist.
When the Nazis came for the Social Democrats I remained silent, I was no Social Democrat.
When the Nazis came for the Jews I remained silent, I was no Jew.
When the Nazis came for me, there was no one left who could protest.

Not to me at least. In fact, I see an important advantage in having Turkey on board. At least the attempts of the monarchists and rightwing politicians to force 'Christianity' into the European constitution would be severely hampered. Europe is not christian. Europe is secular.
And some do know that classical 'Greece' included Asia Minor, you know

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"Say not, 'When I have free time I shall study'; for you may perhaps never have any free time"
Hillel the Elder

Thanks for that

Hi Hector,

Where are your politicians ? Where is your journalistic power so efficient on some topics ? What is Turkey doing to put europeans in confidence ? Nothing. All the times we see declaration of Turkish gov., they talk about europe for business and markets and that's all. Many of us are already tired to see that the european construction is mainly oriented on economical matters. The day Turkey opens its mouth and tell she wants to share values and ideologies, then I'm quite sure people like me will be reconsidering their position.

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Forget it Turkey will never join the EU and there not making it hard for the EU to reject them. EU25 have blocked accession talks for the time being under the premise that Turkey’s refusal to open its port and airports to Cyprus is an indicator that Turkey does not meet the necessary prerequisites that would allow the EU to bypass the stage of monitoring the Turkish legislation and move on to the next, namely the official membership talks.

Turkey have just got to wake up and stop blaming "Christian" Europe for failure to be accepted as an EU member. They MUST at the very least recognise Cyprus if they are gonna have any chance of seriously being considered as a potential EU member.

Doesn't that kind of depend on where in Europe you are? For example is Spain or Portugal , Italy or Greece secular. The governments may be, so is the US and I wouldn't call our society secular at the moment, but are the people in those countries religious or not?

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The universe grows smaller every day and the threat of aggression by any group anywhere can no longer be tolerated. There must be security for all or no one is secure... - Klaatu

No matter with percentage of the people believe what, European Union is a non-religious organisation.

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I understand that, butas I said technically so is the US government. However it can't be denied that underdifferent administrations religion has more of a role than under others. Since each nation in the EU has a veto, isn't it possible that the religious nature of some of the various societies that make up the EU will have an impact on the EU.

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The universe grows smaller every day and the threat of aggression by any group anywhere can no longer be tolerated. There must be security for all or no one is secure... - Klaatu

The census might tell you that a majority is christian, but that's just because most people get baptized and it's an enormous hassle to get de-baptized. I don't think any of the countries you mentioned has a majority of people that would insist on claiming religiousness their foremost concern.
There are a few countries that do have a expressed christian outlook, viz. Ireland and especially Poland. But it's just a fact that especially for the younger generation, religion simply doesn't play any role whatsoever in their lives. They're not 'anti', it's simply not on their agenda.

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"Say not, 'When I have free time I shall study'; for you may perhaps never have any free time"
Hillel the Elder

Ah yes but we were there about 25 to 30 years ago as well. Look at us now. Plus I think you will find that religion is a persistant force and even though it is dead or dying in the northern European countries it seems to me it is not quite as dead in the southern ones or eastern ones. Those are the ones with more population taken as a whole as well are they not.

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The universe grows smaller every day and the threat of aggression by any group anywhere can no longer be tolerated. There must be security for all or no one is secure... - Klaatu

Oh, it's not dead, and indeed I don't think it will ever be. It's being replaced. The traditional, organized churches, especially the Catholic one are losing membership faster than they can count. Churches are literally abandoned due to lack of believers (and even priests) and put to other uses.
But spirituality is not gone, which is translated in a resurgence of 'native' religions like Druidism, Wicca (doesn't mean the same here as in the USA), New Age, et al. also Buddhism, Zen, Yoga, are 'hot'. But none of these have any representation politically, which causes a rift between the 'proletariat' and the 'aristocracy' (note the quotes, please). It's a not unimportant aspect of the refusal to support the previous EU-constitution that gets little attention in the media.
There's also something new, which is brilliantly described by the Dutch word 'ietsisme', which is very hard to translate without loosing all the connotations it carries. Literally it means 'something-ism', people stating that the churches tell crap, but 'still, there has to be something'. Actually, I think this is the prevalent religion (outside of 'None') in most Western European countries. Maybe our resident Dutch English Literature guru could come up with a better thranslation

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"Say not, 'When I have free time I shall study'; for you may perhaps never have any free time"
Hillel the Elder

I think that they have too many internal problems today to enter the European Union. Culture is something which is not the same than in the rest of Europe, but isn't the main problem according to me

And the current EU-members have no internal problems? Besides, Turkey has a legacy dating from Kemal Ataturk of secularism, which is quite remarkable.
Another pro of Turkey entering the EU is giving 'us' a lever to do something about the Turkish treatment of the Kurds, which is genocidal, Hector, like it or not.
In fact, geopolitically, there's hardly any options left now, since the USA invaded Iraq. The Iraqi Kurds will achieve an independent Kurdistan now, which will piss off Turkey immeasurably if there is to be no quid pro quo. Don't forget the strategically crucial airport of Incirlik either.
Also, the EU is not about a uniform common culture, at least I hope so, each and every member is already mutlicultural, like it or not. There are already 5 million Turks living in Germany, and AFAIK that doesn't cause any major cultural problems.

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"Say not, 'When I have free time I shall study'; for you may perhaps never have any free time"
Hillel the Elder