Copenhagen Summit of the European Council and Turkey

The paper describes the context in which the Copenhagen EU Council occurred and analyses the outcome of the Summit for Turkey. It concludes that Turkey has to continue on the path of consolidating its democracy and secularism, in order to advance its long-standing aspirations to be part of Europe.

Although Turkey failed to receive the negotiation date it had wished for, in an important decision, the EU Council decided to increase funding available to the country. Moreover, this funding will fall under the budget heading of 'pre-accession expenditure' from 2004, which in itself carries a political significance. In addition, the Council adopted a separate declaration on a 'United Europe', in which the countries acceding in 2004 commit themselves to supporting the continuation of the enlargement process. One important issue the Council failed to address, however, is the question of whether Turkey is a European country.

Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer defined the outcome of the Summit as a 'let-down' and an 'unfair decision', while the government leadership accepted the results and announced that they would go ahead with the reform packages and their implementation.