Turkey’s relationship By: Mohammed Jabir

with the EU
 1. Introduction
Turkey is the only pluralist secular democracy in the Moslem world and has always attached
great importance to developing its relations with other European countries. Historically,
Turkish culture has had a profound impact over much of Eastern and Southern Europe.

Turkey began "westernising" its economic, political and social structures in the 19th century.
Following the First World War and the proclamation of the Republic in 1923, it chose Western
Europe as the model for its new secular structure.

Turkey has ever since closely aligned itself with the West and has become a founding member
of the United Nations, a member of NATO, the Council of Europe, the OECD and an associate
member of the Western European Union. During the Cold War Turkey was part of the Western
alliance, defending freedom, democracy and human rights. In this respect, Turkey has played
and continues to play a vital role in the defence of the European continent and the principal
elements of its foreign policy have converged with those of its European partners.

Having thus entered into very close cooperation with Western Europe in the political field, it
was therefore only natural for Turkey to complete this in the economic area. Thus, Turkey
chose to begin close cooperation with the fledgling EEC in 1959.

2. Major milestones in the relationship between Turkey and EU

2.1 The Ankara Agreement

In July 1959, shortly after the creation of the European Economic Community in 1958, Turkey
made its first application to join. The EEC's response to Turkey's application in 1959 was to
suggest the establishment of an association until Turkey's circumstances permitted its
accession. The ensuing negotiations resulted in the signature of the Agreement Creating An
Association Between The Republic of Turkey and the European Economic Community (the
"Ankara Agreement") on 12 September 1963. This agreement, which entered into force on 1
December 1964, aimed at securing Turkey's full membership in the EEC through the
establishment in three phases of a customs union which would serve as an instrument to bring
about integration between the EEC and Turkey.
2.2 Turkey's Application for Full Membership in 1987

On 24 January 1980 Turkey shifted its economic policy from an autarchic import-substitution
model and opened its economy to the operation of market forces. Following this development
in the economic area and the multiparty elections in 1983, the relations between Turkey and
the Community, which had come to a virtual freeze following the military intervention of 12
September 1980 in Turkey, began returning to normality. In the light of these positive
developments, Turkey applied for full membership in 1987,

2.3 Luxembourg European Council

the Luxembourg Summit reflected by and large the contents of the Commission's "Agenda
2000", the following points related to Turkey need to be highlighted:

 Turkey's eligibility was reconfirmed.

 The EU decided to set up a strategy to prepare Turkey for accession and to create a
special procedure to review the developments to be made.

 Turkey was invited to the European Conference, but a number of unacceptable pre-
conditions were put forward.

 The development of Turkey-EU relations was made conditional on certain economic,

political and foreign policy questions.

 The Commission was asked to submit suitable proposals to enhance Turkey-EU

relations.

2.4 Post-Helsinki Phase

The recognition of Turkey as a candidate for accession at the Helsinki European Council in
December 1999 ushered a new era in the relations between Turkey and the EU. For both parties,
Helsinki marks a qualitatively new beginning and a process of strategic mutual transformation.
The EU Commission started to prepare an Accession Partnership for Turkey, which was
declared on March 8th, 2001. On the other hand, the framework regulation designed to furnish
the legal basis for the Accession Partnership was adopted by the General Affairs Council on
February 26th, 2001. The regulation aims at combining all EU financial assistance under a
single program. The Accession Partnership was formally approved by the Council on February
26th, 2001. With the adoption of these two documents, an important legal procedure
concerning Turkey's accession strategy was finalized.

2.5 LAEKEN EUROPEAN COUNCIL

The Laeken European Council of 14-15 December 2001 had important implications for EU-
Turkey relations in general and the accession process in particular. Foremost among these is
the possibility of opening accession negotiations with Turkey, which for the first time has been
explicitly mentioned at the highest levels. Turkey's recent concrete steps as regards European
Security and Defense Policy, together with the recent developments in Cyprus also had a
positive impact on this conclusion. Another important decision taken at Laeken is that Turkey
will be taking part in the Convention on the future of Europe on an equal basis with the other
candidates. This can be considered as a progressive step, in the sense that the EU considers
Turkey to be part of a common future. Thus, a clear membership perspective along the lines of
the other candidates has been given to Turkey.

3. SCREENING PROCESS
At the Association Council meeting of April 11th, 2000, 8 sub-committees were set up with
the task of monitoring the process of analytical examination of the acquis. The sub-committees
completed their second round meetings within July 2001.

Substantial progress has been made during these meetings. The acquis has become more
tangible and meaningful for the Turkish bureaucracy. Yet in this process, the need for a more
detailed evaluation of the acquis became apparent. Therefore, Turkey suggested initiating a
formal screening exercise. The request was especially pronounced during meetings with the
Commission officials, before the announcement of this year's Progress Report.

The fact that the Progress Report for 2001 did not propose the initiation of a screening process
for Turkey is its most negative aspect. Initiating the screening process with Turkey would have
been important in two aspects. Firstly, it would indeed provide a further technical capacity of
developing the integration process. Secondly, beginning the screening process would give
added impetus to the implementation of the reform measures undertaken by the government in
the political and economic spheres.

It is an unfortunate development that a number of EU Member States have made the initiation
of the screening process a political issue and identified it with accession negotiations. The fact
that there is a linkage between screening and membership negotiations is not challenged.
However, there are no conditions to start a screening process, while to begin accession
negotiations, political criteria must be fulfilled. Moreover, as the experiences of other candidate
countries reveal, there are no uniform procedures for the initiation of the screening process. As
the Helsinki European Council Conclusions pointed out, there should be no discrimination
between the candidate countries and future steps for Turkey should also be similar to those of
the other candidates.

Nevertheless, in the Progress Report, the Commission recommended starting a new phase in
the pre-accession strategy by involving a detailed scrutiny of Turkey's legislation and its
timetable for alignment with the acquis. While unsatisfactory in responding to her requests,
Turkey will assess the Commission's proposal positively. The sub-committees will continue to
monitor the progress. We envisage that the 3rd round will complete its work during the Spanish
Presidency.

3.1 2001 REGULAR REPORT AND STRATEGY PAPER

This year the European Commission prepared its fourth annual Progress Report for candidate
countries. As all other reports, 2001 Progress Report for Turkey was announced on 13
November 2001. On the same day, the Commission also declared its Strategy Paper,
introducing proposals on methods to be applied in the future, within the framework of the
enlargement process.

Progress Reports evaluate the candidate states' progress towards membership only for that
specific year. Compared to previous ones, there is a notable difference in this year's Report for
Turkey. It was drawn up in a more careful manner in view of the momentum created by the
recent constitutional amendments. Those matters that were found wanting were also
enumerated in the same way.

It is evident that some of the weaknesses pointed out in the Report concerning fundamental
rights and freedoms will disappear as our National Programme comes to life with all its aspects.
In fact, this assumption finds its place in the Report, which states that as the constitutional
changes are reflected into the secondary legislation, these weaknesses will gradually disappear.

On the other hand, the steps taken in Turkey concerning improvements in the economic, social
and cultural rights areas, training carried out in the human rights field and the modernization
in the prison system were found to be positive by the EU Commission. This assessment is
constructive and an encouragement for Turkey's ongoing reform process carried out in these
fields. Turkey has lately made some real progress deserving attention and it is believed that
individual cases ought not shadow these developments.

3.2 ACCESSION NEGOTIATIONS

As agreed at the European Council in December 2004, accession negotiations have been
launched on October 3, 2005 with the adoption of the Negotiation Framework by the Council
of the European Union. "Negotiation Framework Document" takes account of the experience
of fifth enlargement process and of the evolving acquis. The framework includes the principles
governing the negotiations, the substance of negotiations, negotiating procedures and list of
negotiation chapter headings.

Until today, In Turkey’s EU accession negotiations, 16 chapters are opened whereas only one
chapter is temporarily closed.

4. SUMMARY

Important Dates in Turkey-EU Relations

 12 September 1963: Ankara Agreement was signed (Effective date: 1

December1964)
 1 January 1996: Customs Union between Turkey and the EU entered into force
 10-11 December 1999: Turkey assumed “candidate status”
 3 October 2005: Accession negotiations were launched
 12 June 2006: Opening of first Chapter (“Chapter 25-Science and Research”) in the
negotiations process (and it was provisionally closed)
 14 December 2015: Opening of “Chapter 17-Economic and Monetary Policy”
 30 June 2016: Opening of “Chapter 33-Financial and Budgetary Provisions”
 Reference
 https://www.ab.gov.tr/brief-history_111_en.html
 Turkey in the world(p89-93)
 http://www.mfa.gov.tr/relations-between-turkey-and-the-european-union.en.mfa
 https://www.avrupa.info.tr/en/eu-and-turkeys-history-711