Turkey’s relations with the EU display a sui generis character owing to both the length and breadth of its engagement with the Union since its inception. The country’s application for an association with the EEC goes back to 1959 and the Association Agreement to 1963. Upon the signature of the Ankara Agreement, the then President of the EC Commission Walter Hallstein hailed it as “an event of great political significance” and confirmed that “Turkey is part of Europe”. Despite being one of the first countries to create an association with the EC, Turkey could not swiftly move in the direction of further integration. While it has made its application to join the EC 30 years ago, has been a candidate country for 18 years and negotiating accession for 12 years, it still is not a member of the EU.

Despite the multi-faceted and deep nature of Turkey’s ties to the EU, bilateral relations have manifested recurrent crises, ebbs and flows along the way. The signing of the Association Agreement, which together with the Athens Agreement, was one of the most extensive agreements ever to be signed by the Community in its early years, was followed by a period of stagnation in the 1970’s. Similarly the application for membership in 1987 was followed by a period of turmoil in Turkey’s political and economic situation in the early 1990’s and the entry into force of the customs union in 1996 was followed by a period of extreme tension in the relations after the Luxembourg Summit of 1997. In each of these different points in time, relations were revived with a new thrust which had the effect of upgrading Turkey’s status vis-à-vis the EU, from associate member to customs union partner, candidate and finally negotiating country or accession country.

Following the latest crisis in the relations in March 2017, we are now witnessing a thaw in the relations brought about by the relaunch of bilateral contacts starting with the meeting of President Erdoğan with Commission President Juncker and Council Chair Tusk in May of the same year. Turkish and EU officials met with the aim of mending the relations within the framework of a renewed roadmap involving several aspects of bilateral ties such as the negotiation process, visa liberalisation, modernisation of the customs union, refugee cooperation and high level dialogue mechanisms. Despite the obvious difficulties in keeping Turkey and the EU together in the face of multiple challenges, Turkey’s goal remains full integration to the EU which would be through membership. As of now, the only viable option that would keep Turkey engaged with the EU and sustain the transformative power of the EU in the country would be a genuine revitalisation of the accession process in parallel with Turkey’s return to the EU reform path.

AS IKV, a 52-year old non-governmental organisation working for the goal of Turkey’s integration into the EU, we continue to uphold the cause of EU membership as a win-win formula for both parties. We expect that this report will help readers to gain an insight into the multifarious and complex dynamics of Turkey and EU relations. We also hope that the policy recommendations at the end of our report will provide some food for thought and inspire policy-makers to take bold steps in the direction of closer relations and deeper bonds.

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IKV REPORT ON TURKEY-EU RELATIONS: KEEPING TOGETHER IN THE FACE OF MULTIPLE CHALLENGES

Authors: Assoc. Prof. Çiğdem NAS, Emre ATAÇ, Ahmet CERAN, Sema ÇAPANOĞLU, Çisel İLERİ, İlge KIVILCIM, Gökhan KİLİT, Deniz SERVANTİE, Yeliz ŞAHİN

IKV Publication No: 288 
Publication date: June 2017
Number of pages: 64