Turkey has been considered an important economic and political partner of the European Union (EU) since the inception of integration after the Second World War. The process of integrating Turkey into the EU commenced in 1963 following the Ankara agreement where Turkey was recognized as an associate member. In 1987, Turkey applied for EU membership, however, it was officially recognized as a candidate for integration in 1999 and accession negotiations kicked off in 2005. Turkey signed a custom union agreement with EU in 1995 (Canefe & Ugur, 2004). This paper examines the Turkey’s economic integration to the EU giving a special emphasis to the reasons that have prevented Turkey from being given full membership status. The paper also looks at the steps that have been taken by Turkey to address the integration challenges.
The EU integration process has exposed exceptional challenges and opportunities for both Turkey and the union in general. Some of the striking features that differentiate Turkey from other states are mainly in the context of size, population, geographical location and the huge economic potential (Cavanaugh, 2011). Other factors include the massive military potential, cultural, and religious constructs. Cavanaugh (2011) identified that these factors play a key role in defining Turkey’s capacity to the regional economic progress and stability. In fact, these factors constitute some of the key issues that have been the cause of disagreement in the accession talks. The main objective of integration has been to strengthen the political as well as economic reformes of the member countries.
One of the hindrances of Turkey’s integration in the EU emanate from its historical background as well as its geographical location. Turkey is predominantly an Islamic nation. Muslims have generally been considered as outsiders as far as Europe is concerned. Turkey, having been at the centre of the Ottoman Empire has been perceived as a military threat by Europe. This notion is anchored on the historical conquest of Constantinople by Muslim authorities in 1453, which ended the Christian oriented Byzantine Empire (Cavanaugh, 2011). The subsequent rivalry between the nations of the Christendom and the Islamic Empire contributed to the creation of an idea that Turkey has not been part for the European Identity (Cavanaugh, 2011).
More specifically, Turkey’s journey of integration has been faced with numerous challenges that prevented it from receiving EU membership status. Majorly, concerns have been raised about Turkey’s political and economic standards, which have been considered as wanting as compared to the EU standards. The political issue has been one of the major hindrances for Turkey to join EU membership. One of the requirements is adherence to the “Copenhagen Criteria” which established obligations that candidate nations must satisfy before joining the European Union (European Commission, 2014). One of the criteria that candidate nations must have achieved before being integrated according to European Commission (2014) is “Stability of institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights and respect for and protection of minorities” (Para 1).
Based on this requirement, Turkey has had challenges especially with stability, where the political structure is being viewed as unstable following the several military coups that have been experienced (Cavanaugh, 2011). Another criticism of Turkey’s eligibility to join EU has been concerning the influence of the military on the political structure of the nation, which have subsequently undermined the right of freedom of expression. The Turkish Political structure is highly aligned to the Ataturk ideologies. In this respect, Turkish authorities have been regarded as having little concern for ensuring freedom of speech. According to Rouleau (2000), the Turkish constitution forbids criticism of the Ataturk. It is observed that, with such ideological constructs, Turkey is highly likely to bend some of the fundamental ideologies that make the Europe’s identity.
Turkey’s economy has also been a source of controversy in its orientation in relation to the EU. The second Copenhagen Criteria established that Candidate nations must have stable market economies to warrant EU membership (European Commission, 2012). Due to the instability of Turkish economy, Europe perceive that, if turkey is integrated, there might arise problems of mass emigrations. This observation is based on the earlier experiences with the Turkish Guest Worker programs, which allowed Turkish nationals to acquire passports to travel outside the nation for work purposes (Icduygu, 2011).
Germany, for instance, hosted thousands of immigrants from turkey following the bilateral agreements that allowed turkey to work in Germany under the guest workers program. To date Germany is overly cautious about Turkey’s integration due to the fear of mass emigrations as witnessed with the guest worker program (Icduygu, 2011). According to Ant (2015), Turkey has not implemented enough policies to caution the economy against volatility where its policies are rated as weaker than that of other EU nations. From a fiscal perspective, if Turkey is integrated into the European Union, it would be ranked among the poorest EU member states based on the GDP. For example, compared to EU average GDP of $ 21,000 Turkeys GDP was only $2,100 in 2001 (Teitelbaum & Martin, 2003).
In addition, with a high population of unskilled workers, it was viewed that a large number of workers would migrate to other EU member states. It was also viewed that, if Turkey was fully integrated as a full member, the overall welfare of the economy of other member states could be affected negatively (Teitelbaum & Martin, 2003).
Turkey has however been addressing the many challenges that have prevented it from gaining full EU membership. It has implemented reforms aimed at improving its eligibility to be fully integrated in the EU. Turkey has initiated programs, for instance, the implementation of the democratization package of 2013 under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (“Erdogan v Gulen”, 2013). The democratization package is aimed at settling the Kurdish Issue. Erdogan’s step was a big step towards meeting the requirements of the Copenhagen Criteria for eligibility of candidates to EU integration. However, there still exist issues such as inadequate independence of the judiciary and human rights concerns that Turkey must address to meet the Copenhagen requirements (“Erdogan v Gulen”, 2013).
Concerning economic stability, Turkey has taken tremendous steps in terms of economic growth where by 2013, economic growth rate was 4 percent. The economic performance of Turkey is seemingly appealing and has high potential for growth. As of today, the EU remains Turkey’s most important trading partner (Canefe & Ugur, 2004). With enhanced economic reforms, almost 70 percent of the foreign direct investments in Turkey come from EU member states (European Commission, 2014).
Turkey has also focused on implementation of reforms in the different sectors of the economy. These reforms are carried out in the manufacturing, services and agricultural sectors including implementation of policies that address environmental, labor market and investment issues. Other economic reforms have focused on reduction of inflation as a measure to improve macroeconomic stability. Such reforms are implemented in collaboration with international financial institutions such as the IMF and World Bank (Jarosiewicz, 2013).
References
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