Vincent Morelli
Section Research Manager
October 2011 will mark the sixth anniversary of the European Union’s decision to proceed with formal negotiations with Turkey toward full membership in the Union. It will also mark the beginning of the annual period when all three European Union institutions, the Council, Commission, and Parliament, provide their assessment of the progress Turkey has made or failed to accomplish in the accession process over the previous year and to issue recommendations on whether and how Turkey’s accession process should proceed. For the 2010 assessments, none of the institutions provided the kind of positive endorsement of the accession talks that pro-EU supporters in Turkey would have hoped for, leading some to believe that the EU might be losing interest in Turkey and that some in Turkey have become even more disillusioned with the EU.
Throughout 2011, the EU has been consumed with its own internal economic and fiscal crisis and apparently has had little time for much else. At the same time, significant developments have taken place in Turkey including a national election in June that returned the governing AK Party to power, a shake-up of the Turkish military, and several foreign policy developments involving Syria, Iran, Cyprus, and Israel. With respect to accession, no additional chapters of the EU’s rules and regulations known as the acquis communautaire were opened in 2011, leaving some to ask whether Turkey’s accession negotiations with the EU had reached a complete political and technical stalemate. The principal issues regarding Turkey’s accession continue to be what the EU believes has been too slow of a pace for implementing critical reforms within Turkey and possibly even a few steps backward in the area of press freedoms; Turkey’s continued refusal to extend diplomatic recognition to Cyprus or to live up to its agreement to extend the benefits of its customs union with the EU to Cyprus, including the continued reluctance by Turkey to open its sea and air ports to Cypriot shipping and commerce until a political settlement has been achieved on Cyprus; continued skepticism on the part of many Europeans whether Turkey should be embraced as a member of the European family fueled recently by a UK parliamentary committee report addressing the risks it saw in Turkey becoming a member of the Union; the implications of the growing Muslim population in Europe and the impact Turkey’s admission into the Union would have on Europe’s future; and a perceived ambivalence toward the EU by some in the current Turkish leadership. Comments among some Turks questioning Turkey’s need to join the EU have begun to be heard on a more public and regular basis while discussions of the EU seem to have become less regular in the internal Turkish debate over its future.
This report provides a brief overview of the EU’s accession process and Turkey’s path to EU membership. The U.S. Congress has had a long-standing interest in Turkey as a NATO ally, a regional energy transit hub, and a partner in issues involving the Black Sea, the broader Middle East, and the Caucasus. Although some Members have expressed support for Turkey’s membership in the EU, the level of congressional support seems to have diminished as congressional concerns with several of Turkey’s recent foreign policy developments have surfaced. The 112th Congress may review Turkey’s relations with the United States, the impact of the EU accession process on internal political and economic reforms in Turkey, and Turkey’s apparent intent to become a more independent regional foreign policy influence.
Date of Report: September 9, 2011
Number of Pages: 20
Order Number: RS22517
Price: $29.95
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