| Author (Person) | Bower, Helen | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Publisher | ProQuest Information and Learning | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series Title | In Focus | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series Details | 30.8.02 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Publication Date | 30/08/2002 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Content Type | News, Overview, Topic Guide | In Focus | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The Turkish Parliament took a momentous step on 2 August 2002 when it voted to lift the death penalty in peacetime. The decision is not only a success for human rights campaigners but indicative of Turkey's increasing desire to become a member of the European Union. The end to the death penalty is one of a series of thirteen reforms that are required if Turkey is to join the European Union. The Turkish Parliament agreed to the twelve others after more than 16 hours of debate, paving the way for broadcasting and education in Kurdish; expanded rights for Armenian, Greek and Jewish minority trusts in Turkey to sell and buy property; and the decriminalisation of criticism of military and state organisations. The reforms were widely met with euphoria in Turkey with calls of "the dawn of a new era" and Turkish newspaper headlines such as "Europe, Here We Come" but the European Commission were more cautious in their response to the approval of the reform package. In a statement on 5 August 2002, the Commission welcomed the package "as an important signal of the determination of the majority of Turkey's political leaders towards further alignment to the values and standards of the European Union". However, it warned that there would still be much to do with regards the practical implementation of the reforms in the months ahead. Even though Turkey was the first of the current candidate countries to seek to join the EU, applying in 1987, it is now lagging behind all the others and has yet to open negotiations in any of the EU chapters. Background Since the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey in 1923, the country has sought to align itself with Western Europe. It was a founding member of the United Nations, and it is also a member of NATO, the Council of Europe, the OECD as well as an associate member of the Western European Union. Following the creation of the European Economic Community in 1958, Turkey applied to join in 1959. The EEC decided that the country's circumstances did not permit its accession and so it suggested creating an association between the EEC and Turkey. This agreement was signed on 12 September 1963 and became known as the "Ankara agreement" - it aimed to secure Turkey's full membership of the EEC through three phases of a customs union which would then bring about integration between the EEC and Turkey. An additional protocol to the Ankara Agreement was signed on 13 November 1970. It set out the details of how a Customs Union would be established with the EEC abolishing all barriers to its imports from Turkey as soon as the Protocol entered into force and Turkey had a 12 to 22 year period to do the same. Turkey's agricultural sector benefited strongly from the customs union with 92% of agricultural exports in 1971 benefiting from the regime. The customs union did not progress as foreseen because of the military intervention in Turkey in September 1980. However, following multiparty elections in Turkey in 1983 relations between the EEC and Turkey began to improve with the result that Turkey applied for full membership of the European Community in 1987. The European Commission's Opinion of 18 December 1989 which was endorsed by the Council on 5 February 1990 recognised Turkey's eligibility for membership but cited the pressing issue of the EC's single market completion as a reason to delay discussions about enlargement. Turkey's application had, however, served the purpose of reviving Turkey-EC relations. Enlargement of the EU - Turkey's Eligibility Following the completion of the single market the European Union began to turn its attention to enlargement, spurred on by the changing political landscape in Central and Eastern Europe. Turkey was keen to be included in the EU's enlargement process and kept the issue at the top of the agenda of Turkey-EU relations. While the EU continued to accept Turkey's eligibility it continued to argue that a number of issues needed to be resolved, particularly Cyprus, Greece and human rights. On the basis of these ongoing issues Turkey was excluded from the Agenda 2000 report on enlargement which was published in July 1997. At the European Council, Luxembourg, December 1997, a number of issue surrounding Turkey's application were clarified and developed:
The Turkish government did not welcome these developments, criticising the European Commission's attitude to Turkey and calling for greater political will on their part. Illustrative of their response was Turkey's decision not to attend the inaugural European Conference in London on 12 March 1998. However, progress was made at the European Council in Cardiff in June of that year when EU leaders endorsed the Commission's strategy for Turkey and agreed to provide the financial assistance necessary for its implementation. The real breakthrough in EU-Turkey relations came at the European Council in Helsinki, December 1999 when Turkey was officially recognised without any precondition as a candidate state on a par with the other candidate states. The European Council also endorsed a number of European Commission proposals concerning Turkey's accession process. These included:
Following the Helsinki European Council, the European Commission issued an Accession partnership for Turkey on 8 March 2001 and the General Affairs Council adopted the necessary framework regulation. The Turkish Government issued its National Program for the Adoption of the EU Acquis on 19 March 2001. Currently, the main aim of the National Program is the opening of the accession negotiations which is dependent upon the fulfilment of the Copenhagen criteria. In order for Turkey to fulfil these criteria it needs to implement a number of reforms such as improving human rights, strengthening the rule of law and the restructuring of democratic institutions. Over the course of 2001-2002 more than thirty articles of the Turkish constitution have been amended to coincide with the provisions of the National Program. In the latest spate of reforms in August 2002, the Turkish Parliament agreed to abolish the death penalty except in wartime, allow minorities the right to education and broadcast media in their mother tongue and liberalise laws restricting freedom of speech and association. Although the reforms have yet to be implemented they are indicative of the Turkish government's determination to press ahead with its EU membership ambition and it has strong public support - a recent poll suggested that some 70% of Turks favour membership. However there remain small secular groups who are also determined not to join the EU and do not agree with the current reforms passing through the Parliament. These right wing nationalists resent what they view to be European interference into sensitive issues such as the Kurdish problem. They also believe that Turkish attention has been focussed on the EU for too long and that business would do better by looking elsewhere. With both sides determined to achieve their aims, it remains to be seen what general elections scheduled for Autumn 2002 will bring. One thing for certain - there is still much to be done in terms of Turkey's application to the EU. While the Turkish government believe that their latest reform package should be rewarded by a date for the start of accession talks at the European Council meeting in Copenhagen in December 2002 this looks unlikely. EU attention will be much more focussed on how to complete accession with certain candidate countries so that the first phase of enlargement can take place in 2004. While Turkey may have been one of the first on the path to the European Union, it has been overtaken by many of its European neighbours and for the foreseeable future Turkey's membership of the EU remains a long way off. Further information within European Sources Online:
Further information can be seen in these external links: EU Institutions
Further and subsequent information on the subject of this In Focus can be found by an 'Advanced Search' in European Sources Online by inserting 'Turkey' in the keyword field. Helen Bower Article examines Turkey's desire to join the European Union and assesses the steps it is taking to make such a membership possible. |
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| Countries / Regions | Turkey | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
