Relations
Between Turkey and the European Union Turkey is the
only pluralist secular democracy in the Muslim world and has always
attached great importance to developing its relations with other
European countries. Historically, Turkish culture has had a profound
impact over most 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, 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 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. 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 situation 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.
The Ankara Agreement envisaged the progressive
establishment of a Customs Union which would bring the Parties closer
together in economic and trade matters. In the meantime, the EEC would
offer financial assistance to Turkey. Under the First Financial
Protocol which covered the period 19631970, the EEC provided Turkey
with loans worth 175 million ECU. The trade concessions which the EEC
granted to Turkey under the form of tariff quotas proved, however, not
to be as effective as expected. Yet, the EEC's share in Turkish imports
rose from 29% in 1963 to 42% in 1972. Although
the Ankara Agreement envisaged the free circulation not only of goods,
but of persons, services and capital between the Parties, it excluded
Turkey from the EEC decisionmaking mechanisms and precluded Turkey from
recourse to the ECJ for dispute settlement. The
Customs Union that was to be established between the Parties went much
further than the abolition of tariff and quantitative barriers to trade
between the Parties and the application of a Common External Tariff to
imports from third countries, and envisaged harmonisation with EEC
policies in virtually every field relating to the internal market.
The Ankara Agreement still constitutes today
the legal basis of the Association between Turkey and the EU.
Turkey's Application for Full Membership in 1987
On 24 January 1980 Turkey shifted its economic
policy from an autarchic importsubstitution 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, on the basis
of the EEC Treaty's article 237 which gave any European country the
right to do so. Turkey's request for accession, filed not under the
relevant provisions of the Ankara Agreement, but those of the Treaty of
Rome, underwent the normal procedures. The Council forwarded Turkey's
application to the Commission for the preparation of an Opinion. This
has reconfirmed Turkey's eligibility, given that a similar application
by Morocco was turned down by the Council on the grounds that Morocco
is not a European country. The Commission's Opinion was completed on 18
December 1989 and endorsed by the Council on 5 February 1990. It
basically underlined Turkey's eligibility for membership, yet deferred
the indepth analysis of Turkey's application until the emergence of a
more favourable environment. It also mentioned that Turkey's accession
was prevented equally by the EC's own situation on the eve of the
Single Market's completion which prevented the consideration of further
enlargement. It went on to underpin the need for a comprehensive
cooperation program aiming at facilitating the integration of the two
sides and added that the Customs Union should be completed in 1995 as
envisaged. Although it did not attain its
basic objective, Turkey's application revived TurkeyEC relations:
efforts to develop relations intensified on both sides, the
Association's political and technical mechanisms started meeting again
and measures to complete the Customs Union in time were resumed.
Meanwhile, the Commission's promised cooperation package, known as the
"Matutes Package", was unveiled in 1990, but could not be adopted by
the Council due to Greece's objection. The European Union's
Enlargement Process and Turkey Turkey attached
particular importance to the EU's current enlargement process for two
main reasons. Firstly, having played an active role during the Cold
War, it was only natural for Turkey to aspire for inclusion in the new
European architecture which it helped to build. Second, the Association
between Turkey and the EU aims at Turkey's full membership in the EU,
as underlined once again with the Customs Union whose dynamics aim at
bringing about further integration between the two Parties. This is why
Turkey kept the question of inclusion in the EU's enlargement process
on the agenda of TurkeyEU relations. At the Association Council of 29
April 1997, the EU reconfirmed Turkey's eligibility for membership and
asked the Commission to prepare recommendations to deepen TurkeyEU
relations, while claiming that the development of this relationship
depended on a number of factors relating to Greece, Cyprus and human
rights. The Commission, however, excluded
Turkey from the enlargement process in its report entitled "Agenda
2000" which it disclosed on 16 July 1997. While the report conceded
that the Customs Union was functioning satisfactorily and that it had
demonstrated Turkey's ability to adapt to the EU norms in many areas,
it repeated the same political and economic arguments against Turkey
and made no reference to Turkey's full membership objective. The
Commission unveiled on the same day as "Agenda 2000", the
"Communication" to enhance relations with Turkey, where it reconfirmed
Turkey's eligibility and brought a number of recommendations ranging
from liberalisation of trade in services to consumer protection, that
aim at taking TurkeyEU relations beyond the Customs Union, but cited a
number of political issues as preconditions for moving our relations
forward. The fact that the EU confirmed
Turkey's eligibility for membership but excluded it from the
enlargement process has been seen as a contradiction. The Commission
opted to propose measures that would reinforce the relationship within
their current framework and complemented these measures with the idea
of inviting Turkey to the European Conference. In the light of the EU's
claims that all candidates would be judged according to the same
objective criteria and that there would be no prejudice in their
evaluation, Turkey found the Commission's approach unjust and
discriminatory. The Luxembourg European Council and the Following
Period Although the decisions of 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: ü Turkey's eligibility was reconfirmed ; ü 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 ; ü
Turkey was invited to the European Conference, but a number of
unacceptable preconditions were put forward ; ü The development of
TurkeyEU relations was made conditional on certain economic, political
and foreign policy questions, and,.ü The Commission was asked to submit
suitable proposals to enhance TurkeyEU relations.
In a statement issued the day after the
Summit, the Turkish Government criticised the EU's attitude, 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. In line with this statement Turkey did not participate in the
inaugural meeting of the European Conference held in London on 12 March
1998. Turkey thus made it clear that the way out of this difficult
situation in the bilateral relations depended on the political will to
be displayed by the EU. The Commission published its
recommendations for a "European Strategy" on 4 March 1998. Its con
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