November 19, 2009
Mavi BoncukEU president: Herman Van Rompuy opposes Turkey joining
The poetry-loving favourite to become the first president of Europe, Herman Van Rompuy, is also a hard-line opponent of Turkey’s bid to join the European Union because it is an Islamic country. Speaking five years ago, as an opposition politician, Mr Rompuy, a Christian Democrat, argued that Muslim Turkey could not be considered a candidate for EU membership.
“Turkey is not a part of Europe and will never be part of Europe. An expansion of the EU to include Turkey cannot be considered as just another expansion as in the past,” he said. “The universal values which are in force in Europe, and which are fundamental values of Christianity, will loose vigour with the entry of a large Islamic country such as Turkey.”
Herman Van Rompuy), born October 31, 1947 in Etterbeek) is a Belgian Flemish politician and member of the CD&V (formerly called CVP) and the current Prime Minister of Belgium, succeeding Yves Leterme.
Van Rompuy was the Vice President of the CVP Youth from 1973 to 1975, from 1978 onward, he was a member of the National Bureau of the CVP, from 1975 to 1980 he worked in the ministerial cabinets of Leo Tindemans and Gaston Geens and from 1988 to 1993 he was the President of the CVP. He also was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Budget from September 1993 to July 1999. After his party’s defeat in the 1999 Belgian general election, he became a member of the Chamber of Representatives. In 2004, he was designated Minister of State.
On July 12, 2007, Van Rompuy was elected as the President of the Chamber of Representatives.
A trained economist, Van Rompuy worked at the Belgian central bank from 1972 to 1975 before going into politics, where he had stints in government in the 1980s and 1990s. As budget minister, he helped drive down Belgium’s debt from a peak of 135 percent of gross domestic product in 1993. It fell to below 100 percent of GDP in 2003.