1963-1999
FROM PARTNERSHIP TO CANDIDACY
Turkey´s face has been firmly directed towards the West since the declaration of the Republic in 1923. Turkey´s foreign policy choices are a clear reflection of this alignment. Turkey is a founding member of the United Nations (1945), a member of NATO (1952), the Council of Europe (1949), the OECD (1960), the OSCE (1973) and an associate member of the Western European Union (1992).
In 31 July 1959, shortly after the creation of the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1958, Turkey made its application for associate membership in to the EEC. The EEC's Council of Ministers´ response to Turkey's application in 1959 was to suggest granting associate membership to Turkey. The ensuing negotiations resulted in the signature of the Turkey-EU Association Agreement, also known as the “Ankara Agreement” on the 12th September 1963. The Ankara Agreement, which entered into force on the 1st December 1964, marks the legal basis of Turkey´s relations with then EEC.
The aim of the Ankara Agreement, as stated in Article 2, was “to promote the continuous and balanced strengthening of trade and economic relations between the Parties, while taking full account of the need to ensure an accelerated development of the Turkish economy and to improve the level of employment and living conditions of the Turkish people”. Article 28 provides the final objective of association; “as soon as the operation of this Agreement has advanced far enough to justify envisaging full acceptance by Turkey of the obligations arising out of the Treaty establishing the Community, the Contracting Parties shall examine the possibility of the accession of Turkey to the Community”.
The Ankara Agreement envisaged a progressive model of integration with Turkey, namely the establishment of a Customs Union composed of three phases; the “preparatory phase”, the “transition phase” and the “completion phase”. The first phase, which aimed to reduce economic differences between the parties, started on the 1st December 1964, upon the Ankara Agreement´s entry into force.
The “preparatory phase” was completed and the conditions of the “transition phase” were set with the signature of the Additional Protocol on the 1st January 1973. The Additional Protocol set out in details the framework of the Customs Union. It was forese that the EEC would abolish tariff and quantitative barriers to its imports from Turkey upon the entry into force of the Addition Protocol, whereas Turkey would do the same in accordance with a timetable containing two calendars set for 12 years and 22 years respectively, and called for the harmonisation of Turkish legislation with that of the EU in economic matters. Furthermore, the Additional Protocol envisaged the free movement of persons between the parties in the next 12 to 22 years.
Turkey-EU relations entered a period of instability lasting from the beginning of 1970s, until the second half of 1980s, due to Turkey´s political and economic conditions. Following the military intervention of 12 September 1980 in Turkey, the relations between Turkey and the then EC virtually froze.
In the first Association Council after the political crisis, in 1986, Turkey conveyed its intention to apply for full membership. In line with this statement, Turkey submitted its application for full membership in the EU - then called the European Community (EC) – on the 14th April 1987, on the basis of the Article 237 of the EEC Treaty, Article 98 of the ECSC Treaty and Article 205 of the EURATOM Treaty. The Council forwarded Turkey's application for membership to the European Commission and requested an Opinion (avis). The Commission announced its Opinion regarding Turkey’s application for full membership on the 18th December 1989, where it underlined Turkey's eligibility for EC membership, yet deferred the in-depth analysis of Turkey's application until the emergence of a more favourable environment. The Commission also mentioned that Turkey's accession was prevented equally by the EC's internal dynamics on the eve of the completion of the Single Market, which prevented any consideration of further enlargement. The Opinion went on to underpin the need for a comprehensive cooperation programme in order to facilitate the integration of the two parties and added that the Customs Union should be completed in 1995 as envisaged.
Under these circumstances, Turkey chose to give priority to complete the envisaged Customs Union with the Community. Talks, which began in 1994, were finalised on the 6th March 1995 at the Turkey-EU Association Council with the adoption of the Decision 1/95 on the completion of the Customs Union between Turkey and the EU in industrial and processed agricultural goods by the 31st December 1995. With this decision, the second stage of Turkey-EU relations was completed and the so-called “completion phase” was initiated. With the Customs Union Decision, Turkey-EU relations entered a totally new phase, due to the fact that the Customs Union constitutes the single most important step for Turkey´s EU integration objective.
Having completed the Customs Union, membership became a top priority in Turkey´s agenda and Turkey began to attach particular importance to the EU's ongoing enlargement process. Despite these positive developments, the Commission excluded Turkey from the enlargement process in its report entitled "Agenda 2000" which it disclosed on the 16th July 1997. While the report highlighted the fact that the Customs Union with Turkey was functioning in a satisfactory level and that Turkey demonstrated its ability to adapt to the EU norms in many areas, it noted the same political and economic arguments against Turkey and made no reference to Turkey's full membership objective.
Following this, in the Luxembourg European Council of 12th -13th December 1997, where Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and enlargement issues were discussed, a parallel approach was reflected by and large the contents of the Commission's "Agenda 2000". In the Council Conclusions, while Turkey's eligibility was reconfirmed by the Heads of States and Government of EU Member States, the EU decided to set up a strategy to prepare Turkey for accession and to create a special procedure to review the developments made. With these decisions, the development of Turkey-EU relations was made conditional on certain economic, political and foreign policy questions, where the Commission was asked to submit suitable proposals to enhance Turkey-EU relations.
The Turkish government held a meeting on the 14th December 1997 and hence immediately suspended its political relations with the EU due to the fact that Turkey was not included in the Summit’s decision regarding the start of accession negotiations. The reaction of the Turkish government was a critical one since the government stated that Turkey's goal of full membership and association would nevertheless be maintained, but that the development of bilateral relations depended on the EU's honouring its commitments, and that it would not discuss with the EU issues remaining outside the contractual context of the bilateral relations as long as the EU did not change its attitude. The Turkish government stated that it was going to proceed with the Customs Union as it was stated in the Association Agreement. The government also adopted a counter-strategy stating that political dialogue with EU would be suspended if EU progresses towards the accession of Greek Administration of Southern Cyprus to the EU and Turkey would intensify its relations with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
At the Cardiff Summit in June 1998, it was announced that a progress report, which was prepared by the European Commission in order to observe the preparation of the candidate countries for accession, was going to be prepared annually for Turkey as well and that Turkey should speed up its preparations in the alignment of its legislation with the Union’s acquis. It was decided that the progress report for Turkey would be based on Article 28 of the Ankara Association Agreement of 1963 and on Luxembourg Presidency Reports. “Europe Strategy”, which the European Commission developed for Turkey, was approved and it was further underlined that this strategy could be enriched with Turkey’s suggestions. As a result, the European Commission, in accordance with the decision taken at the Cardiff Summit, prepared the Progress Report for candidate countries and for Turkey on the 4th November 1998.
The enlargement process was revised during the Vienna Summit in December 1998 during which decision to strengthen the relations between Turkey and the EU was taken while developing the “Europe Strategy” to prepare Turkey to EU candidacy.