IKV Chairman Ayhan Zeytinoğlu evaluated Turkey-EU relations after the meetings that took place between President Erdoğan and EU authorities on 25 May. Stating that this is an important step towards normalising the relations that has been deteriorating after the 15^th of July and getting through crisis before the referendum, Chairman Zeytinoğlu pointed out that this highest level face to face meeting may be effective for providing bilateral trust and dialogue.

“We left behind the period that we faced important difficulties in our relations with the EU. The issues are not over yet but it is seen that there is a consensus for putting bilateral relations back on track after the referendum in Turkey. Besides the NATO summit, President Erdoğan’s meetings with President of the European Commission Juncker, President of the European Council Tusk, President of the European Parliament Tajani along with French President Macron and German Chancellor Merkel are very crucial for expressing problems and approaches face to face and bilaterally. Following this, we expect a fast progress towards normalisation in bilateral relations” said IKV Chairman.

“Turkey maintains its critical importance for Europe’s security”

IKV Chairman Zeytinoğlu emphasised that Turkey is critical country not only for the EU but also for Europe and excluding Turkey from institutions of the EU will make a lot of problems impossible to solve:

“Recently Turkey has been subjected to pressure not only from the EU or some Member States but also in institutions that she is a member of like OSCE and Council of Europe. No doubt that Turkey’s progress towards EU’s norm and values is important not only for Europe but also for Turkey’s stability and development. Today, Turkey’s contribution for solutions to problems that Europe is facing is crucial. Turkey’s participation and cooperation in economy and migration as well as in defense and security is very critical. Turkey’s contribution will play an important role towards fighting against terrorist organisations and NATO’s participation regarding this along with the efforts for collaboration in defense that gained currency in the framework of reform agenda after EU’s Brexit decision. It is necessary to look at the relations with Turkey from the perspective of Europe’s security and common defense.”

“Membership must remain on the agenda; on the short term the update of the Customs Union could revive the relations”

The IKV Chairman finally pointed to the need for a roadmap for the future of relations and suggested the acceleration of the process of updating the Customs Union without any deviation from the aim of membership:

“Bilateral relations have gone through hard times in 2017. The referendum in Turkey and the elections in leading countries in the EU such as France and Germany led to a rise in tension on both sides. However, it is now time to plan the future of relations.

In order to revitalise the EU process the measures to be taken in the first place may be: the continuation of regular summit meetings between the two sides, the visa liberalisation process, the acceleration of the steps towards resolution of the Cyprus issue, the opening of Chapters 23 and 24 which contain the issues of immigration, free movement, justice and judiciary in negotiations and bringing forward the clauses foreseen in the refugee consensus. For the development of economic relations it is necessary to focus on to start negotiations without delay of the update of the customs union with the purpose of membership in the long term. In this way with the expansion of the Customs Union into new areas such as agriculture, services and public procurement it would be possible to develop a more efficient functioning of a customs union relationship. Besides increasing access to the EU single market, improving the position of Turkey in the European production chains, increasing the value added production and developing compliance with EU norms and standards will trigger structural reforms and will lead Turkey to exit from the middle income market. I hope this process will be an anchor for the reforms of democratic and rule of law criteria.”