ANKARA: The newest Turkiye report of the European Parliament, with its crucial tone, infuriated a number of decision-makers in Ankara.
However the newest assertion from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan marks the primary official setback from the nation’s strategic bid for EU membership in crucial instances as Turkiye grapples with vital financial challenges and seeks to strengthen its commerce relationships with EU member states.
Earlier than his departure to New York on Saturday to attend the 78th UN Common Meeting in New York, Erdogan informed reporters that Turkiye could unilaterally half methods with the EU if vital, implying that the nation is contemplating ending its membership bid.
“The EU is making efforts to sever ties with Turkiye,” he stated.
“We’ll consider the state of affairs and if wanted, we are going to half methods with the EU.”
The European Parliament’s report, which prompted Erdogan’s response, left no room for ambiguity.
It pressured that any resumption of accession negotiations between the EU and Turkiye hinged upon Turkiye’s implementation of crucial democratization reforms.
Furthermore, the report really useful that the EU discover “a parallel and real looking framework” for its relations with Turkiye, hinting at a recalibration of their engagement.
Turkiye has been an official candidate to hitch the EU since 1999, however accession talks have stalled particularly over the previous 5 years over the bloc’s issues about democratic backsliding.
Nonetheless, in the course of the NATO Summit in Vilnius on July 11-12, Erdogan made it clear that his approval for Sweden’s NATO membership bid could be contingent upon the revival of Turkiye’s EU membership talks.
Erdogan additionally confirmed that full membership remained a key strategic goal for Turkiye and known as for the re-opening of accession talks.
“Though it’s not at all times clear and constant what Erdogan needs from the EU, plainly he needs a relationship with no conditionality,” Nilgun Arisan-Eralp, director of the Middle for European Union Research at Ankara-based suppose tank TEPAV, informed Arab Information.
“I believe he regards Turkiye (as) so highly effective — with its presumed geopolitical weight — that no nation or intergovernmental or supranational institutional can inform the nation what to do,” she stated.
“He pretends he isn’t conscious of the membership circumstances, particularly these pertaining to democracy, rule of regulation and elementary rights. Such a relationship will be established between the EU and a 3rd nation that could be essential for a particular trigger — like Tunisia within the case of refugees — however not with a rustic that may be thought-about as a candidate,” she added.
Turkiye was not invited to the EU’s current enlargement conferences, first within the Greek capital Athens on Aug. 21, regardless of the presence of different candidate international locations, after which to the Gymnich international ministers’ assembly on Aug. 31 within the Spanish metropolis Toledo — one other growth that irked policymakers in Ankara and triggered the sensation of exclusion.
“EU may have invited Turkiye to enlargement conferences to debate the progress or lack of progress along with different candidate international locations in a multilateral framework,” stated Arisan-Eralp.
“A dialogue may have been initiated with Turkiye within the areas of international coverage and safety in several platforms just like the Gymnich conferences,” she stated.
What a complete however real looking optimistic agenda between the EU and Turkiye would appear like has now turn out to be a matter of debate.
“Given the present circumstances, it might be based mostly on mutually helpful cooperation areas,” Arisan-Eralp stated.
“It would embody modernization of the Customs Union, cooperation on a inexperienced and digital transition, facilitation of visa procedures and a dialogue on international coverage,” she stated.
The rising development of rejection of Turkish residents’ EU visa purposes over the previous few years has not too long ago prompted the Turkish authorities to barter with the EU to facilitate visa procedures.
Following the current go to by Oliver Varhelyi, the EU’s commissioner for neighborhood and enlargement, in Ankara on Sept. 5, Turkish International Minister Hakan Fidan stated that each events have agreed to work on visa facilitation for Turkish businessmen and college students.
Technical groups are additionally anticipated to start engaged on the modernization of the Customs Union quickly, overdue for an replace, as it’s restricted to industrial items and processed agricultural merchandise.
Sinan Ulgen, a former Turkish diplomat and chairman of the Istanbul-based Middle for Economics and International Coverage, thinks that after the elections Erdogan has adopted a optimistic rhetoric towards the EU and expressed his willingness to revitalize this relationship.
“However the drawback is that to this point, this has remained on the degree of rhetoric,” he informed Arab Information.
“What actually must occur is that the Turkish authorities ought to basically create a home momentum for political reforms, for enhancements within the rule of regulation, additionally by addressing the continued process throughout the Council of Europe as regards to the non-compliance of the rulings of (the) European Courtroom of Human Rights,” he stated.
But, the state of affairs is much from one-sided. On the EU aspect as effectively, Ulgen stated, there are a variety of shortcomings.
At present, the EU appears paralyzed, unable to harness various technique of interplay with Ankara past the long-stalled accession course of.
The EU ought to discover methods to have interaction with Turkiye, Ulgen stated.
“Now they’re unable to do this and that factors to a sure strategic blindness on the aspect of the EU as a result of there are completely different channels of engagement with Turkiye above and past the stalled accession, like visa liberalization, modernization of the Customs Union, cooperation on renewables, inexperienced transition.
“However to this point, the EU has been unable to at the very least attempt to unblock any of those channels of engagement,” he stated.
“Even just a little gesture like inviting (the) Turkish minister to (the) Gymnich-style international ministers’ (assembly) didn’t occur,” he added.
For the foreseeable future, Ulgen thinks that the accession monitor will stay stalled within the absence of a robust democracy second in Turkiye, which he considers a squandered alternative. After the conflict in Ukraine, the difficulty of enlargement has as soon as once more turn out to be a practical theme for the EU, the place there’s an ongoing dialogue about find out how to open the door of accession to international locations like Ukraine and Moldova in addition to the Western Balkans.
“Turkiye is completely absent from that dialogue. Towards that backdrop, the EU and Turkiye ought to at the very least agree for the close to future on some components of optimistic agenda, beginning by the Customs Union and visa facilitation problem,” he stated, implying the pressing want for forging a path towards constructive engagement within the close to future.
Turkiye is the EU’s seventh greatest commerce companion, whereas the EU stays Turkiye’s largest merchandise import and export companion.
The bilateral commerce quantity reached a report $200 billion final yr. Technical works to enhance commerce ties between Turkiye and the EU will start throughout Commerce Working Group conferences in October.
