Relations Between Turkey and the European Union

1
Relations Between Turkey and the European Union

• Turkey EU association relations date back to
  the signing of the Ankara Agreement in 1963.
• The main aim of these relations has always been
  Turkeys eventual full membership to the EU.
• One of the most important turning points of
  Turkey EU relations is the completion of the
  Customs Union as of January 1, 1996.
• Customs Union, not only helped Turkey to
  harmonize with the EU norms in the areas covered
  by this relationship, but also brought a new
  impetus to these relations with an even stronger
  perspective for membership.

2
Customs Union What trade figures show

• Turkeys imports from the EU15
• 1995?16.8 million
• 1996?23.1 million
• 2000?26.6 million
• 2005?45.3 million

• Turkeys exports to the EU15
• 1995?11.1 million
• 1996?11.5 million
• 2000?14,5 million
• 2005?35.8 million

3
Customs Union What trade figures do not show

• Customs Union contributed to the modernization of
  production patterns and increased consumer
  awareness.
• Customs Union formed the framework for the works
  to increase competitiveness both internally and
  internationally.
• Turkish industry entered into a strong
  competition with EU firms not only at European
  level but in domestic markets.
• The legal and regulatory changes made to
  harmonize with the EU technical legislation and
  standards helped Turkish products to reach
  international markets more easily.

4
Customs Union What trade figures do not show

• The Customs Union is established with the aim of
  Turkeys EU membership
• The whole body of the modalities of the CU system
  has been drawn with this aim.
• For this reason, the CU between Turkey and the EU
  contains a deep and comprising understanding of
  integration.

5
Helsinki Summit Another turning point

• The Helsinki Summit meeting of the December 1999
  forms another important turning point in Turkey
  EU relations.
• In Helsinki, the EU leaders confirmed Turkeys
  candidacy status and included Turkey to the
  enlargement strategy drawn in Copenhagen in 1993
  (the Copenhagen criteria)

6
From 1999 to 2004Efforts to fulfill the
political criteria

• The precondition to start the accession
  negotiations is to fulfill the political
  criteria.
• Thus, Turkey went through a major reform process
  concerning its democracy and human rights
  standards
• The constitution was amended twice, and Turkey
  adopted eight comprehensive reform packages in
  order to align with the Copenhagen political
  criteria.

7
2004 Launching of the Accession Negotiations

• On 6 October 2004, in its regular progress report
  for Turkey, the Commission said it ... considers
  that Turkey sufficiently fulfils the political
  criteria and recommends accession negotiations be
  opened.
• The European Parliament approved this decision.
• And on 17 December 2004, the leaders of the EU
  member countries decided to start the accession
  negotiations with Turkey as of 3 October 2005.

8
Stages of Accession Process

• Negotiation Decision (17 December 2004)
• Negotiation Framework (3 October 2005)
• Screening (20 October 2005) (October 2006)
• Actual Negotiations
• Temporary and final closure of negotiation
  chapters
• Signing of the Accession Treaty
• Approval of the Treaty, and Accession

9
2005 Two important developments

• Starting of the accession negotiations
• The first stage of the accession process the
  screening- started on 20 October 2005 on the
  acquis chapter Science and Research.
• The screening process is progressing smoothly and
  timely.
• So far, in 14 of the 35 chapters the screening is
  completed.
• The whole screening process will end by October
  this year.
• The actual negotiations on the first aquis
  chapter will start soon, and the rest will follow
  in due course.

10
2005 Two important developments

• Another important development since the opening
  of accession negotiations has been the
  recognition of Turkey as a functioning market
  economy by the European Commission in its last
  Progress Report.
• Thereby, Turkey fulfilled the first component of
  the Copenhagen economic criteria.
• It is anticipated that, in the near future,
  Turkey will also satisfy the second parameters of
  these criteria by proving its capacity to cope
  with competitive pressure and market forces
  within the EU.

11
The future How will the accession negotiations
proceed?

• Negotiations are held in two levels Technical
  and political.
• Not much to negotiate in the technical sphere.
  The EU acquis will have to be adopted.
• The subject of the negotiations is the timetable
  for adaptation, implementation and enforcement of
  the acquis and not the substance itself.

12
The future How will the accession negotiations
proceed?

• The political sphere is the Intergovernmental
  Conference that meets twice a year during the
  negotiations process.
• It is the place where opening and closing of
  chapter headings are decided with unanimity.
• In the IGC meetings, positions and strategies are
  discussed among the ministers of the member
  states and the candidate country.

13
Conclusion What should Turkey do?

• The accession negotiations will be hard.
• But at the end Turkey will have internationally
  accepted norms and standards in all the areas
  covered by the EU acquis, and become an EU
  member.
• The accession process should not be regarded as a
  set of technical adaptations. Each and every
  harmonization work done in the process have a
  trigger effect on other areas, and at the end a
  total transformation will take place.

14
ConclusionWhat should Turkey do?

• At this stage Turkey should
• pay utmost attention to the implementation of the
  political reforms,
• sustain the improvement in economy,
• construct an effective administrative structure
  to manage the negotiations (transparency and
  participation),
• focus on a two-way communication strategy in
  order to help EU nationals understand Turkey and
  Turkish nationals understand the EU.
• and take all the measures to manage this process
  in the best way possible.