Should Turkey be admitted into the European Union ?

Résumé du document

Although many people believe the debate regarding the admission of Turkey into the European Union (EU) is recent, it actually dates back to 1959, just two years after the signing of the Rome Treaty, which created the EU (see appendix 1). In July 1959, Turkey asked for an association agreement with the EU (15 days after a similar request by Greece), which was accepted. This agreement, which was mainly
economical in nature, mentioned that eventually, Turkey would join the EU. In 1963, Walter Hallstein, the then president of the European Commission, declared that "Turkey is part of Europe", and that "one day, a final step in order to join the Union.
These included the existence of a market economy, respect for the principles of democracy, including liberty of speech and the absence of gender discrimination.

Extraits

[...] Next, Turkey's joining the EU would also lead to institutional problems. Nowadays, the EU works more or less as it did when it counted only 6 members, because its institutions have never been reformed ever since. Thus, the number of seats in Parliament per country is based upon the population of each country, which would mean that Turkey would be the most important country in EU's parliament. In other words, an enlargement to Turkey would represent an increase of the EU's population that would be more important than that of 2004, although it included 10 countries. [...]

[...] Should Turkey be admitted into the European Union ? Should Turkey be admitted into the European Union ? Here is a common Turkish joke: The European Commission, annoyed by the length of the negotiations with the 3 actual candidates to the European Union, decided to ask the Foreign Minister of each of them one single question. To the question “When did the first atomic bomb explode the Romanian Minister answered easily. The Bulgarian Minister had to indicate the name of the first city which received an atomic bomb. [...]

[...] Are there factors that the simple Copenhagen criterion forgets ? 8 “Should Turkey be admitted in the European Union II . it may be thought that an enlargement to this country would be at least hurried or premature A. AN ENLARGEMENT TO TURKEY WOULD BE PREMATURE BECAUSE OF TURKEY'S GEOPOLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL SITUATION Even though Turkey's localization is highly interesting from a geopolitical viewpoint, it must not be forgotten that this country is still at variance with many of its neighbors, such as Greece or Armenia. [...]

[...] Many people fear a lack of petroleum could occur within the next few years, especially because the EU has few 5 “Should Turkey be admitted in the European Union petroleum resources. But Turkey has many: it owns 4 oilfields oil refineries and 4 main pipelines. Thus, “controlling” Turkey would give the EU strong oil resources, and more importance over the international resources scene. And to people who say that oil is an obsolete resource, Turkey can answer that it also owns a few gas fields, and that one of the most important gas pipelines in the world runs from Ankara to the Eastern European countries. [...]

[...] But has Turkey made enough efforts to join the EU ? The second part of this paper will try to demonstrate that today, an enlargement to Turkey would be at least precipitate and premature. First, because Turkey itself is not ready to join the EU, and does not really will to change about aspects that really matter, such as the Armenian genocide recognition. And the EU is not, either, ready to integrate Turkey: the Europeans are, nowadays, very divided on this issue, and a real reform of the European institutional system is clearly needed before Turkey joins the EU. [...]