Obama touches European nerves over Turkey

US President Barack Obama touched a sensitive nerve on Sunday during the EU-US summit in Prague, saying that the United States is in favor of Turkey's membership of the European Union. French President Nicolas Sarkozy immediately told Obama that this decision is one that needs to be made by Europe, and not the US. Hans-Gert Poettering, President of the European parliament, comments in this video.

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[MrDenocan]

@FinMilkku Good one mate :)

[FinMilkku]

@CHRISTOKONI the union does have 27 members so....

[FinMilkku]

i share the same opinions with this dude. we can work with turkey, but to accept them in the union? no. since it is called the EUROPEAN union.

[CHRISTOKONI]

@ratzP

LOL which serious country would join this silly Union?only country like vardaska and albania

[yeniceri1015]

The European Union will be bankrupt in 15 years. Economic wars will start between member states. Honestly who in their right mind would want to be part of this huge mess?

All the major players realize this. Turkey does not want to come out and say it does not want membership, it would hurt short term economic interests. And the European Union as a whole cannot back out from legal pledges they have made. It is all a stupid dance. Neither side wants it.

[Uygur102]

@FreddieBambino Finally someone who get's it.. Like they say Europe is one and one is Europe. If they ever concider taking Turkey to the EU and thinking it was a mistake, it's very stupid of them though. Turkey isn't there for power, nor the strength. Turkey only has to improver in many ways, already started though and still going on. Turkey is one of the fastest growing countries in the world. Why woud they else ever letting Russia join or any other country?

[FreddieBambino]

I must say though, the hatred in the comments on this video really makes me sceptical of Turkey ever joining. After 9/11 there has been huge boost in islamophobia and its almost like staring into the early 20th century era of racism and bigotry reading some of this stuff. Not that Turkish comments here any more prudent or logical(how come Turks think EU will become a superpower if they join the EU, lol).

[FreddieBambino]

People are always talking about Turkey needing to do this or that before joining, well EU also needs to plenty of things should Turkey join. EU would need to become a much more effective policy maker, putting together common policy with every country having veto power sick sack in all categories is a headache, even a disaster today. If Turkey joins, this would possibly become a much bigger problem, so should Turkey join, EU needs to integrate further and remove alot of vetos.

[FreddieBambino]

Obama would be wise to keep his mouth shut on these affairs. Europeans dont give a crap what USA does regarding NAFTA and could care less if Mexico joins USA or not.

Secondly he is hurting Turkey's possibilities join the EU by sticking his noise in the case. The french are sceptical of Turkey joining since they think USA wants to put them there to slow down integration and install an ally into EU to effect policy making. Obama now blathering on about it makes the French even more suspicious.

[FreddieBambino]

@Thechristianellul

This guy only claims to be Norwegian, to be honest I dont think he is. Norwegians are the biggest nerds on the planet, hillybillies to the bone, but mostly prudent people and not so unbelievably racist as this moron.

I come from Iceland, if we join EU, we will replace you as the country with the smallest population. :D We dont have a military either, ironically since we are a founding member of NATO.