«Misperceptions in EU and Turkey-EU relations » prepared by IKV’s team was published in February 2014. The publication aims to alter the common misperceptions spread among Turkish public.

Approximately nine years ago, “Misperceptions in EU and Turkey- EU Relations” was published based on the questions that came out during a project entitled “Seminars on Turkey-EU Pre-Accession Negotiations Process” which was conducted with the financial  support of the European Commission in 24 cities around Turkey. Although today the accession negotiations with the EU is still undergoing, the beginning of this process marked one of the major turning points in Turkey-EU relations. The social, economic and political reforms undertaken during the negotiation process affect all levels of society. Therefore, EU and Turkey-EU relations became an important agenda for every Turkish citizen.

In order to raise awareness of the ongoing process, not only many seminars and conferences have been organized but also many studies were published. But despite the progress made in the negotiation process and the awareness-raising activities, we can observe that not only some prejudices still remain but new ones have arisen. In this context, IKV decided to re-publish its previous study “Misperceptions in EU and Turkey- EU Relations” by integrating the latest developments in EU and Turkey-EU relations as well as by broadening its scope to new areas.  This publication aims to alter the misperceptions which are unfortunately widely spread due to the biased and sometimes to the lack of information.