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7/6/06

A club of plotting nations

The Times & The Sunday Times, Malta

"A club of plotting nations

Ranier Fsadni

Most of us are familiar with the idea that the US and England are two great nations divided by a common language: too many words shared that appear to mean the same thing when they do not, leading to profound, sometimes comic misunderstanding. Maybe we should begin to entertain the idea that the EU and Turkey are divided by a few, shared pet phrases.

If we do not do so soon, EU-Turkey relations may soon get worse than they have been for the last few weeks - bad enough to threaten the wreckage of membership talks. For those of us who are not, in principle, against Turkey's membership of the Union, such a failure would be a pity.

One of the pet dividing phrases is "a club of Christian nations". In the EU, this is taken to refer to an unwarranted cultural influence of Christianity over secular politics. The way to show one is not a Christian club is, first, to have a style of politics that is neutral between values (as long as they do not violate constitutional liberties); second, not to exclude nations from joining the EU simply because their predominant historic, cultural identity is not Christian."

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