EU-Turkey relations [What Think Tanks are thinking]

Relations between the European Union and Turkey gained new momentum in March 2016 with an agreement aimed at addressing the migration crisis. One element of the deal is that Turkey shall take back migrants who cross to Greece illegally. The EU would accept Syrian refugees directly from Turkey and compensate it with financial aid, early visa-free travel and further progress in accession talks.

The intention of the agreement is to ease pressure on the borderless Schengen area. Yet some critics say the EU should not be forging closer ties with Turkey at a time when its regime seems to become increasingly authoritarian in the areas of freedom and expression and assembly. The European Commission’s recent report on Turkey, discussed by the European Parliament on 13 April 2016, calls on Turkey to lift restrictions on media freedom and to stop political interference into the judiciary.

This note offers links to recent commentaries and reports from major international think tanks on relations between the EU and Turkey, as well as on political developments in that country. More studies on the topic can be found in a previous edition of ‘What Think Tanks are thinking’.

Written by Marcin Grajewski.

• Primary Source

ESO: Background information: EU-Turkey relations [What Think Tanks are thinking] [2015 edition] http://www.europeansources.info/record/eu-turkey-relations-what-think-tanks-are-thinking-2/

ESO: Background information: European Council, Brussels, 17 - 18 March 2016 http://www.europeansources.info/record/european-council-brussels-17-18-march-2016/

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