IKV organized a seminar entitled “A Horizon Tour on EU-Turkey Relations: New Dimensions, New Objectives” in cooperation with Kocaeli Chamber of Industry (KOSANO) on 9 May 2016.  At the seminar, recent developments in EU-Turkey relations, the revision of the Customs Union, the visa liberalisation dialogue and Turkey-EU Readmission Agreement were discussed. During the seminar, information about EU funds and the opportunities presented by EU Programmes was also given to participants.

In his opening speech, KOSANA and IKV Chairman Ayhan Zeytinoğlu gave information on the activities and projects carried out by IKV. Within this framework, he shared the results of a survey commissioned by IKV and conducted by Realta Research Company with the aim of analysing the support for Turkey’s EU membership among the Turkish public opinion. The survey reveals that 75,5 percent of the Turkish public opinion is supporting Turkey’s EU membership, compared to 61,8 percent obtained in the survey conducted last year. This increase reflects the new dynamism in Turkey-EU relations following the refugee crisis and the increased cooperation between Turkey and the EU. IKV Chairman pointed out that the expectation for EU membership still remains low with 35,6 percent this year. He also explained that among the main reasons behind the support for Turkey’s EU membership are the prospect of more welfare and further economic development, democracy and freedom, culture and civilisation as well as free movement and the removal of frontiers.

Following the opening speech, the first speaker of panel, IKV Secretary-General Assoc. Prof. Çiğdem Nas revealed information on the steps of Turkey’s EU accession process and current situation in the Turkey-EU negotiations process and the challenges ahead in Turkey-EU relations. IKV Secretary-General Nas indicated also the milestones of this process which started with the signature of the Association Agreement between Turkey and the EU, then followed by the establishment of the Customs Union, Turkey’s candidature for EU membership and the beginning of the negotiation process.

Assessing the current state of play in the negotiations, IKV Secretary-General Assoc. Prof. Nas explained that the refugee crisis gave an important impetus to Turkey-EU relations, especially in terms of accelerating the visa liberalisation process and the possibility of opening new chapters. She also pointed out that the signature of the Readmission Agreement and the decision to modernize the Customs Union were important factors behind the new wave of dynamism in Turley-EU relations.

At the meeting, IKV Junior Researcher Ahmet Ceran gave a presentation regarding Turkey-EU Visa Liberalisation Dialogue and the refugee crisis faced by the parties. In his presentation, IKV Junior Researcher Ceran informed the participants about the 72 criteria that need to be fulfilled by Turkish authorities for Turkish citizens to access the EU visa-free. He also presented and commented the main outcomes of the third report assessing the progress made by Turkey in terms of fulfilling the requirements of its visa liberalisation roadmap. Within this respect, he explained that Turkey need to take additional measures to fulfil the requirements of 5 remaining criteria related to corruption, personal data protection, operational cooperation agreement with Europol, effective judicial cooperation in criminal matters to EU Member States and legislation on terrorism.

Moreover, IKV Junior Researcher Ahmet Ceran referred to different dimensions of visa problem. In this respect, he shared the results of the research and analysis carried out by IKV regarding the economic and humanitarian dimensions of the visa problem. Lastly, he drew attention to the importance for Turkish business world, civil society and public opinion to put pressure on EU decision-makers relating for the lift of visa obstacles against Turkish citizens.

In her presentation, IKV Senior Researcher Selen Akses informed the participants about the need to update the Customs Union and the process which awaits Turkey.  In this respect, Senior Researcher Akses pointed out to the problems encountered within the current way of functioning of the Customs Union and the need arose to upgrade the Customs Union. The need to revise the framework and the scope of the Customs Union has arisen especially due to changes in the world trading systems and also in Turkey and EU’s economic and trade interests.  

IKV Senior Researcher Akses stressed that although Turkey has to align its trade policy with the EU’s preferential trade regime; Turkey is not included in the decision-making process and the negotiations conducted by the EU with third countries. This creates an asymmetric situation in disfavour of Turkey. These concerns have increased following the launch of the TTIP negotiations between the EU and the US.

The last speaker of the panel, IKV Project Director Çisel Ileri gave a presentation on EU funds and financial assistance to Turkey. She shared detailed information about IPA funds within the context of the financial assistance and indicated that Turkey will benefit from an assistance amounting to 4.454 million euros for the period covering 2014-2020.

Furthermore, IKV Project Director Ileri also explained that Turkey could benefit from an important financial resource by participating to EU Programs. In this respect, she presented the opportunities offered within Horizon 2020, CREATIVE EUROPE, COSME, EaSI, Erasmus+ Programmes. By submitting project proposals to these Programmes, Turkish businesses, SMEs, NGOs, students, entrepreneurs and other related groups can benefit from a financial pool amounting to a total of 100 billion euros.