EU-Turkish Relations: Prospects and Problems

The decision taken by the European Commission in October 2005 to open accession negotiations with Turkey will have far-reaching consequences for the future of Europe and its neighborhood. The evolution of Turkey's accession negotiations with the European Union will be a test of Turkey's ability to carry out the necessary political and economic reforms in a way that moves closer to overall European standards of governance. The accession process will also be a test of the EU's competence to map out its geostrategic future in twenty-first-century international relations.

The goal of forging close political, economic, and military links with the West is not a new development in Turkish foreign policy. As a member of the Council of Europe, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Turkey has been on a steady path of integration with the transatlantic community of Western states.

Turkey became an associate member of the European Economic Community in 1963 with the mutually agreed upon objective of joining what would become the EU at a future stage. In the past decade Turkey's economic ties with the EU have deepened even further as a result of the customs union that exists between the parties.

The challenge that Turkey must live up to, now that the EU has given the green light to membership, is that of consistently implementing a process of modernization and reform. In recent years Turkey has demonstrated that it is able to conduct reforms at a political, economic, legal, judicial, and cultural level.

As membership negotiations with Turkey begin in earnest, EU members must realize that Turkey has a crucial role to play in the EU's Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and its emerging European Defense and Security Policy. Located along the southeastern peripheral sector of the European continent, Turkey occupies a buffering position between the European and Middle Eastern regions.

As an Islamic but not Arab secular state, and as the former imperial power in the Middle East, Turkey has had the option of either becoming completely engulfed in the Middle East's regional pattern of relations or becoming more closely intertwined with European regional dynamics. Turkey chose the latter option, and EU membership is the latest step in such a foreign policy strategy. The conflictual nature of regional relations to its south and the underdeveloped nature of its neighbors to its south and east served as an incentive for Turkey to opt for closer contacts with Europe.

As a full member of NATO and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and an associate member of the EU, Turkey already has strong intergovernmental links with Europe and the United States. The challenge confronting Ankara since the end of the Cold War has been to adapt to the changing global and regional security picture and identify a role that it could play in the emerging European security landscape. Its EU membership aspiration should be regarded as a vehicle that will enhance its European identity and further legitimize and thus stabilize Turkish governmental and nongovernmental institutional links with Europe.

The two main issues that have hindered closer Turkish relations with the EU since Turkey submitted its formal application in 1987 to join what would become the EU, namely, its agriculture-dominant economy and its conflict with Cyprus, have already shown signs of abetting in recent years. First, the outcome of the EU budget breakthrough for the years 2007 to 2013 that was reached in December 2005 includes a commitment to commence a budget review process in 2008 with comprehensive terms of reference that will set the stage for a fundamental change in the way that the EU collects its funds and spends its money. This will include moving toward elimination of the Common Agricultural Policy subsidies by 2013 in conformity with the World Trade Organization Doha Round provisions and overhauling its system of revenue for the EU budget by moving toward a more transparent system of taxation.

Such changes will buffer the EU's exposure to admitting a country of more than...