Turkey and the European Union: a reluctant membership?

Résumé du document

The European Union has never been an exclusive club. From the beginning of the integration process, fellow European countries were welcome to apply for membership. However, as the Union was deepening its integration and growing in size, the question of where and when to stop the enlargement became controversial. The Turkish application in particular has roused, and is still rousing a lot of debate, especially as the EU has undergone its biggest challenge so far by admitting twelve new members in 2004 and 2007. The majority of those countries were poor, agriculture-based economies from Central and Eastern Europe. The question that arises is, why did the Union admit those economically less successful countries after a relatively short period of time, while the Turkish application remained on hold? What were the criteria used by the European institutions and the member States to give priority to the CEECs?

Extraits

[...] & KATZENSTEIN Peter J. Cambridge University Press European Commission, More Unity and More Diversity. The European Union's Biggest Enlargement. November 2003. European Council. Conclusions of the Presidency. Copenhagen, 21-22 June 1993. FONT, Nuria. the European Union Gave Turkey the Green Light”, in Journal of Contemporary European Studies. Vol.14, pp.197-212. [...]

[...] The EEC thus sent the signal that European integration was not merely an economic, pragmatic process, but had further goals of democratisation. The end of the Cold War complicated the situation: so many countries were suddenly in the position to apply for membership that the EU had to re- think its membership criteria. Being European and democratic could not be enough anymore, especially at a time when the Community was deepening its integration with the signature of the European Single Act and the Monetary Union project. [...]

[...] The Cyprus problem: real obstacle or smokescreen? Cyprus has been one of the obstacles to the accession of Turkey in the EU, and at the same time has been a powerful “bargaining power” for Turkey (Nugent 2000, p.20). Since the 1974 coup d'état, Turkey has refused to recognize the Republic of Cyprus but has supported the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The application of the Republic of Cyprus put the EU in a difficult position and threatened its relation with Turkey, who was against a divided Cyprus joining the Union, which finally happened in 2004. [...]

[...] The question remains to know if Turkey will settle the situation without being assured of becoming a full member of the EU. A pragmatic approach to the Turkish application is difficult to evaluate as the various European actors have different pragmatic interests, but it seems that the arguments in favour of having Turkey in the EU, or at least of keeping a close partnership with Turkey, are outweighing the difficulties. Sjursen (2002) argues that those “utility-calculations” are the reason why the EU finally accepted Turkey as a candidate, while the CEECs were accepted for a very different reason that might be the key to understand why Turkey had waited so long and received so little support. [...]

[...] The Limits of Enlargement. ARENA Conference on Democracy and European Governance, Oslo. March McLAREN, Lauren Turkey's Eventual Membership of the EU: Turkish Elite Perspectives on the Issue”, Journal of Common Market Studies, March 2000, vol N°1. pp.117-129. MORGAN Tabitha. “Symbolic Nicosia Wall Comes Down”. BBC News. Friday March 2007. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6434919.stm NUGENT, Neil. Enlargement and the Cyprus Problem” in Journal of Common Market Studies. [...]