Turkey’s Accession to the European Union: Differences in European and US Attitudes, and Challenges for Turkey

Abstract

This contribution analyzes recent European Union (EU) policies toward Turkey’s candidacy for membership, with special attention to US-European differences on this issue, the interplay between prospective membership in the EU and Turkey’s security needs, and the relationship between Turkey and the projected European Security Defence Policy. It seeks to understand the challenges Turkey faces in balancing steps necessary for accession against the risks such steps pose for internal cohesion and regional security. It provides an interpretive overview of developments that changed EU policies toward Turkey’s candidacy for membership, with a special focus on European and US differences on this issue as well as implications for Turkish government policy. It reviews developments from the December 1997 Luxembourg summit (when the EU, in effect, “rejected” Turkey’s request for accession) to the December 1999 Helsinki summit (at which the EU reversed that decision and made Turkey a candidate state). Turkey’s vulnerability to external threats; and US and EU (especially German, French and Greek) perceptions of Turkey’s role relative to their post cold war security interests is then examined. It looks at two key issues regarding Turkish membership: the form an Accession Partnership Document (APD) with Turkey would take and whether the EU would endorse it; and the European Security Defence Policy (ESDP), the role Turkey would play in it, and whether NATO would endorse it. Finally, it attempts to understand the challenges Turkey faces in balancing the steps necessary to begin negotiations for accession against the risks such steps pose for internal cohesion and regional security.