Interviewee: They have basically brought in a huge number of states that are transitional in their economies, in their societies. There’s now a consensus among people in the EU. Then perhaps Romania and Bulgaria were brought in a little fast. But, perhaps their standards of anti-corruption and their political standards, and their economic standards and educational standards are not exactly where they should be. This is not to say that they don’t want them in the union, but maybe they should just have waited a couple more years. There is within the union a belief, which I think is an accurate one, that there are leverage to encourage reform exist before membership and less so afterwards. So the lesson that you withdraw if you are a European and you are looking at a country that maybe isn’t quite where you want them is that you should get them where you want them before you say yes finally on that application. Because afterwards, they become one of those sitting at the table, and it becomes very difficult to make them change their ways once they’re one of your peers, right.
Interviewer: You talked to a friend about Sarkozy.
Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: He says some incendiary remarks.
Interviewee: Yes.
Interviewer: About Turkey not being culturally Western, not sharing same political culture, I guess, aspirations. He has also said that location wise, Turkey is [IB] 2 continents, it’s really in Asia Minor.
Interviewee: Right.