LONDON -- Where does Europe end and Asia begin? The question is of more than academic interest because the answer will determine what sort of entity the European Union is to be. There are those who talk about "the final completion" of the EU as though a line can be carefully drawn between the states of Europe and their eastern neighbors and that this would settle for all time the question of who should be members and who should be left out.
But anyone standing here in the great and ancient city of Istanbul is at once in both Europe and in Asia. This is the European tip of the vast and mainly Muslim nation of Turkey, which stretches deep into the Central Asian heartlands.
The decision has been made by the existing EU members, after much soul-searching, to begin the processes that will bring Turkey into the EU. That step, when and if it takes place (up to 12 years from now), will end the concept of the EU as a containable grouping on the Western end of the Eurasian landmass.