Turkey: Europe's strategic choice

Ask any European politician to jot down the challenges facing their citizens and you would probably end up with a list something along these lines:

• Increasing global competition from Asia;

• Insecurity of our energy supplies;

• Seemingly intractable problems in the Middle East;

• Rising extremism trying to drive Muslims and non-Muslims apart;

• An aging population and a looming pensions crisis;

• The desire for Europe to play a more active role beyond its borders and

• The need to tackle drugs, organised crime and illegal migration - both at those borders and within them.

So imagine if there were a country that could play an immensely positive role in tackling all these challenges. A country with a dynamic economy that is on track to attract US$20 billion in inward investment this year; that is already a major transit country for oil and gas and is set to be a crucial energy corridor into Europe; that has a network of relationships with countries in the Middle East, including Syria and Iran, which no current EU member state can match; that has shown how Muslim values can be European values; that has a young and increasingly educated workforce; that has larger armed forces than any other European country and that has shown that it can deliver real successes, working with us, on tackling terrorism, organised crime, illegal migration and trafficking.

Best of all, this country wants to help Europe face all these challenges. So what should our response be?

On the one hand, we could encourage this country, helping them to continue political and economic reforms, noting how far they have already come, while stressing the need for them to meet the conditions and obligations. Over a period of 10 to 15 years we could draw them ever closer until they were in a position to become members of the European Union.

On the other hand, having said that this was what we wanted, we could now change our minds and turn our backs on them - write off the results of an unprecedented reform process, erect new barriers, make it clear that we are not sure that they will ever really be "one of us". In doing so we would, of course, not just cancel out any potential gains from a closer relationship but put in jeopardy the cooperation we already have. A simple choice, you would have thought. But for some people not, it seems, when it comes to Turkey.

Perhaps, they might say that those of us who favour further enlargement are seeing things through rose-tinted spectacles. But history is on the side of the optimists not the pessimists. There were plenty of people who thought the 2004 enlargement would never work - too big and too soon. Yet it has been an unqualified success. Just as each previous round of enlargement has brought immense benefit to those joining and to those already in the club: dictatorships now democracies, old enemies now good friends. The role of the EU in transforming country after country on its borders has been little short of miraculous.

Are Turkey, and indeed the Western Balkans, different? No and yes. No, this is not the first time we have taken such a bold step. Welcoming in the former communist states of central and eastern Europe was unprecedented in both scale and significance. Yes, both Turkey and the Western Balkans present very specific challenges - which is why the accession process for them is the most rigorous yet. That is a good thing but, having agreed those conditions and started the process, we need to show that the EU will abide by its promises. Strict conditionality, of course: but not new conditions. What we promised, not some lesser prize.

It goes without saying that Turkey - like any other candidate - must meet all its obligations to the EU. In the case of Turkey not opening its ports and airports to Cypriot shipping and aircraft, it is right that the EU responds. But we in the United Kingdom believe that this response should be proportionate and designed to ensure that Turkey meets those obligations in full.

Of course, if a port were opened in line with Turkey's obligations, the EU should welcome this progress and react accordingly. Making sure the accession process stays on track, keeping Turkey engaged with Europe and keeping the Turkish government engaged in the search for a Cyprus settlement, is the only way to deliver change in Turkey and security in Cyprus.

So when European politicians meet in mid-December to discuss enlargement in general and Turkish accession in particular, they face a strategic decision of huge significance. Make no mistake, if we push Turkey away, we will end up with a European Union which is poorer, weaker and less secure.

Ms Beckett is the British Foreign Secretary.