The EU must also address itself to the remaining security issues on our continent. We need to do all we can to make Russia feel welcome in the family of Western democracies. Membership in either NATO or the EU is impractical, not least because Russia is a vast Asian as well as European power. But, again, the EU ought to be demolishing fences rather than erecting them.

In the case of Turkey, the EU seems to be almost careless in its behavior. The EU has made it clear to Turkey that, although it applied for membership years ago, there is no early prospect of admission. Meanwhile countries that have only recently become democratic and pro-Western are politely ushered to positions higher up the queue. Few things could be more important for our security than that Turkey should remain democratic and well-disposed toward the West. It is being kept at bay, partly because some European leaders apparently see the EU as a subset of Christendom, and partly because, with its manifest social problems, Turkey's inclusion would create substantial problems of integration. We have had to put heavy reliance on Turkey as a NATO ally during our conflicts with Iraq. It is very difficult for the Turkish government to sell to its people the merits of being a good member of NATO, and it is difficult for us to persuade Turkey to be reasonable over the Cyprus problem, when it is offered so little and treated so brusquely by the EU. Here is an instance where the EU has a clear choice between on the one hand maintaining its preoccupation with achieving "ever closer European union", and on the other hand using its enlargement to enhance the security of its members. It appears to have made the wrong choice. It has failed to think strategically.

The Turkish case serves to illustrate a broader truth. Those who are most influencing the progress of Europe have become dreadfully confused. They believe that European integration is the only guarantee of future security, and they are pursuing the objective with a single mindedness that borders on fanaticism. They are wrong. It is democracy that provides our greatest hope of future peace and prosperity. We should use our Atlantic and European institutions in every way we can to spread democracy and nurture it where it takes root.

The EU is entirely made up of member states that are democracies. But the EU itself is not democratic. Neither the EC, nor the Council of Ministers, nor the European Central Bank is democratically accountable; and they cannot be made so, because Europe is not a nation. It follows that the more we transfer decision-making away from the democratic member states to the undemocratic EU, the less shall we enjoy democratic accountability.

Moving away from democratic control is retrograde in itself, but it is also highly dangerous because disillusion and grievance provide a breeding ground for extremist passions of various kinds. In the interests of security, tolerance, and harmony among nations, in the interests of preserving the most valued gain of the postwar period, which is democracy, we should turn from the headlong rush toward European political integration, in which the single currency will be a decisive and irrevocable step.

Michael Portillo was a member of John Major's Conservative cabinet during 1992-97, holding positions as Treasury Secretary, Secretary of Labour, and Secretary of Defence. This essay is adapted from a lecture given in January to the Institute of Economic Affairs in London.