Turkey has been trying to become a full member of the European Community since 1963, when an associate agreement was signed. It was one of the countries that established the OECD, an organization that represents democracy and free market economy. In 1995 Turkey started a customs union with the EU, which was the first step toward a full membership of the EU. At the European Council in Helsinki, Turkey was considered as a potential candidate for full membership of the EU. According to the European Council (2003), “Turkey is a candidate state destined to join the Union on the basis of the same criteria as applied to other candidate states.” As mentioned in the statement, the European Union is willing to offer Turkey a full membership as long as they fulfill the criteria for membership provided by the European Commission. In other words, Turkey has to share “the values, objectives and legal order set out in the [EU] treaties.” Therefore, the EU developed a pre-accession strategy for Turkey and agreed on an accession partnership on the same basis as the other candidate countries, which negotiated a treaty with the EU. For that reason, Turkey was allowed to participate in certain EU programs and meetings among the member states of the EU and the candidate states.
Although formal discussions have taken place since 2005, the member states have not reached an agreement yet. Turkey’s EU accession is the leading controversy among the member states of the EU concerning the enlargement of the European Union. Some member states are in favor of Turkey’s EU membership due to its geographical location, which could be a benefit for the European Union; whereas other countries are concerned about the situation within Turkey and its effects on the European community. Turkey should not become a full member of the European Union because of a violation of human rights based on Turkey’s ideology, security reasons, and the financial risk for the economy of the European Union. Consequently, a privileged partnership would be more appropriate.
Introduction
Turkey has been trying to become a full member of the European Community since 1963, when an associate agreement was signed. It was one of the countries that established the OECD, an organization that represents democracy and free market economy. In 1995 Turkey started a customs union with the EU, which was the first step toward a full membership of the EU. At the European Council in Helsinki, Turkey was considered as a potential candidate for full membership of the EU. According to the European Council (2003), “Turkey is a candidate state destined to join the Union on the basis of the same criteria as applied to other candidate states.” As mentioned in the statement, the European Union is willing to offer Turkey a full membership as long as they fulfill the criteria for membership provided by the European Commission. In other words, Turkey has to share “the values, objectives and legal order set out in the [EU] treaties.” Therefore, the EU developed a pre-accession strategy for Turkey and agreed on an accession partnership on the same basis as the other candidate countries, which negotiated a treaty with the EU. For that reason, Turkey was allowed to participate in certain EU programs and meetings among the member states of the EU and the candidate states.
Although formal discussions have taken place since 2005, the member states have not reached an agreement yet. Turkey’s EU accession is the leading controversy among the member states of the EU concerning the enlargement of the European Union. Some member states are in favor of Turkey’s EU membership due to its geographical location, which could be a benefit for the European Union; whereas other countries are concerned about the situation within Turkey and its effects on the European community. Turkey should not become a full member of the European Union because of a violation of human rights based on Turkey’s ideology, security reasons, and the financial risk for the economy of the European Union. Consequently, a privileged partnership would be more appropriate.
2 Literary Review
Hemerijck, the author of European Union, Turkey, and Islam, reasoned that Turkey must accept the Copenhagen Criterion in order to get a full membership. The EU has evolved into an union of values and objectives that is based on a democratic constitutional state, whose formal requirement is that church and state are autonomous and the state guarantees religious freedom and rights. In 2003 the European Commission criticized the current situation of inadequate religious rights (Hemerijck, 2004).
In contrast to Hemerijck, Mango argues that Turkey’s EU accession could strengthen democratic institutions in Turkey and its position within the counsels in the West. However, a rapid development of Turkey’s economy would require a large and continuing flow of foreign capital (Mango,1994). As a consequence, the EU would have to pay more money to Turkey than to the last ten member states that have been accepted to the EU and the net amount of money for each nation would change (Hökman, 2005).
In the same way, Hökman, the author of Economic Reform and Accession to the EU, states that although Turkey’s economy could benefit from foreign direct investment (FDI), especially the productivity in the manufacturing sector, the FDI inflows to Turkey have always been very low. He says that the reason for this is probably the situation in Turkey itself. The country faces two major problems: the fiscal problems, which have been there for a very long time, and the ensuing macroeconomic uncertainty. By the implementation of a fiscal adjustment, a lower inflation and macroeconomic stability should be achieved. Besides the macroeconomic uncertainty, Turkey is not as attractive for foreign investors as other countries due to its infrastructure-related weaknesses and its lack of computerization (Hökman, 2005).
With this in mind, Tiersky points out that the relationship with Cyprus is another sticking pointthe in order to become part of the EU. Turkey argues that the Cypriote government did not legitimately represent the ethnic Turkish minority, so Turkey opposed the entry of Cyprus in the EU. The Cyprus dispute leads to a drawback in the Customs Union because Turkey refused to open its ports to Cypriote planes. The member states of the EU made it a condition for Turkey to find a solution for the problem with Cyprus (Tiersky, 2006). The logical conclusion is that Turkey is not yet ready to become a full member of the European Union.
3 Discussion
First, Turkey’s ideology differs from other member states. Characterized by Hemerijck, the European Union has “a Judeo-Christian value system.” The EU is a multicultural community, thus, churches contribute to this society due to the fact that churches and religion are part of public life. With this in mind, the EU simply expects any candidate nation to share this vision of multicultural diversity and express it though their behavior toward different religious communities. The Conference of European Churches (2004), represented by its Church and Society Commission, claims that “the accession talks with Turkey will have far-reaching consequences for the future existence of the Union.” Additionally, “[There are] limits of religious freedom in the country,” the commission wrote as a justification for their opinion. “Churches in Europe raise … the deep concern about the situation of Christian minorities … [which] still have to face many problems in terms of legal recognition, property rights and development of education curricula,” the representatives of the commission added (Conference, 2004, p.2). It seems clear from this that human rights are ignored. In 2003, the European Commission criticized the current situation of inadequate religious rights as the follow:
Concerning freedom of religion, the changes introduced by the reform packages have not yet produced the desired effects. Executive bodies continue to adapt a very restrictive interpretation of the relevant provisions, so that religious freedom is subject to serious limitations as compared with European standards. This particularly the case for the absence of legal personality, education and training of ecclesiastic personnel as well as full enjoyment of property rights of religious communities.
(European Commission 2003, as cited in Hemerijck, 2004, p.4)
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- Citation du texte
- Annemarie Wendicke (Auteur), 2008, EU membership: An unfeasible plan for Turkey, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/91512
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