deniz deger's List: EU politics

• Rosa Balfour, an analyst at the European Policy Centre think-tank, said: “The emphasis on co-ownership represents an attempt to avoid the EU imposing the policy agenda on its partners. On the other hand, co-ownership undermines the leverage that the EU could exercise to push for reform . . . The exclusion of the European and national parliaments, and of civil society organisations, reinforces the intergovernmental and elite-driven nature of this initiative.”
• Mr Sarkozy also stirred suspicions in Turkey that his project was a smokescreen for quashing Turkey’s aspirations to full EU membership and fobbing it off with a lesser partnership.
• hese differences have now been ironed out, with Germany winning the argument for bringing all EU countries into the project, and Turkey receiving assurances that its involvement will not undermine its EU candidacy

1 more annotation...