European Union’s Response toward Turkish Accession under PM

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C. European Union’s Response toward Turkish Accession under PM

Erdogan Leadership The Turkish Accession that was being processed since 51 years ago raised the controversy among the EU memberstates, either in government or non- government. Although Turkey is admitted as growing country economically and influencing country politically which by this condition could rise his prestige in the world, the EU‟s response toward Turkish accession still seems unfair compared to the other candidates accession process such as Kosovo, Montenegro, etc. The supports and positive sight for the accession begun to come up but the postponements and even rejections are still exist among the government of EU member states and EU population. The supports of some governments of EU states for the accession come up because their consideration on potential and strategic of Turkey that would be great benefits for European Union, in addition, Turkey has also been assessed quite mature with a high degree of economy to become a member.The reasons of refusing countries are also various, the most preventing reason is the Turkey-Cyprus problem, and another reason are same with what have been told before about the reason of EU‟s postponement toward Turkish accession before PM Erdogan leadership. 129 And there was no economic reason here because every EU member countries and even the world have recognized the Turkish economic success. By looking at the data, the total of supporting countries is more than refusing countries which is 23:4. The number of supporting countries in PM 129 Vincent Morelli, “European Union Enlargement: A Status Report on Turkey‟s Accession Negotiations”, p: 7, accessed at 392014 54 Erdogan era must be more than the number of supporting countries in the previous Turkish government when the Turkish economy was remained in low. Unfortunately, this condition still unable to bring Turkey to be an official member of European Union because the decision have to be approved by all members of EU Parliament which consists of all members states. This actually what prevents Turkey to be accepted as EU permanent member. The opinion of the government of EU member countries is not always same with the opinion of their population. Some of the EU population seemed to have another way to consider the Turkish accession in EU. For the detail number, here is the data of public opinion of EU towards Turkish accession which was taken in 25 EU countries: Table III. C.1: The Precentage of EU Public Opinion In Favor And Oppose Of Turkeys Accession Countries Support Against Sweden 48 41 Spain 40 33 Poland 42 37 Portugal 40 38 Malta 39 40 Hungary 41 43 United Kingdom 38 42 Slovenia 49 55 Ireland 33 40 Netherlands 41 52 Latvia 31 51 55 Lithuania 27 50 Belgium 36 60 Estonia 27 53 Denmark 33 59 Czech Republic 30 57 Slovakia 28 56 Italy 27 57 Finland 31 64 France 21 68 Greece 29 79 Germany 21 74 Luxembourg 19 74 Cyprus 16 80 Austria 11 80 EU-25 31 55 Source: Eurobarometer 64.2 2005. 130 The table above shows that those who refuse the Turkeys accession is still more than those who support even in the country that their government already declared its support for Turkey, for example United Kingdom. The reason of the rejection is the diversity of identity and their afraid of the amount of Turkish population with its Muslim majority that they will be free to spread in all over the part of Europe. 131 The main refusing countries of EU toward Turkish accession are Germany and France. Those both countries even offered the “Privilaged Partnership” to Turkey instead of being an official member state of EU because they assumed that 130 Antonia M. and Joise I., European Public Opinion and Turkey‟s Accession, Making sanse of an Argument, European Policy Institute Networks, Working Paper, no. 16, May 2007, p:8 http:www.ceps.eufilesbook1494.pdf 131 ibid, p: 13 56 Turkey was not part of Europe, this was written in their declaration on 2009. 132 The Privileged partnership offers no obvious new privileges to Turkey, even though it offers a member almost all pan-European organizations from the Council of Europe to soccer leagues, and the member will in many ways get closer to the EU than any other non-member. 133 Turkey vehemently rejected that option because they thought that they do more deserve to be EU member than being partner of Europe. Then Erdogan himself was loudly rejecting that kind ofinvitation that was offered by the German and France. PM Erdogan said that the Privilaged Partnership is not part of the EU terminology and he emphasized that the purpose of the talks is membership. 134 In addition to the response of the government and the population of EU member states as described above, the EU Parliament and EU Commission stance toward the Turkish accession also need to be discussed particularly in the case of negotiation process of 35 chapters of Acquis communautaire . In December 2004, the European Council stated that Turkey had sufficiently met the qualities of the European democracy and made enough progress in legislative process, economic stability, and judicial reform to proceed with accession talks within a year. In the aftermath of the Council‟s decision, the European Parliament voted 132 Saban Kardas , “Merkel and Sarkozy Call for Privileged Partnership Angers Turkey”, the Jamestown Foundation , 1352009, [online article], available from: http:www.jamestown.orgsingle?no_cache=1tx_ttnews5Btt_news5D=34983.U_RdIeOSxe8 , accessed at: 882014 133 Hugh Pope , “ Privileged Partnership Offers Turkey neither Privilege nor Partnership- The EU-Turkey Cyprus Triangle ”,International Crisis Group, 23 Jun 2009, [online article], available from: http:www.crisisgroup.orgenregionseuropeturkey-cyprusturkeyprivileged-partnership-offers-turkey-neither- privilege-nor-partnership.aspx , accessed at 1182014 134 “Erdogan urges Germany to support Turkey‟s EU accession”, Todays Zaman, 2822011, [online article], available from:http:www.worldaffairsjournal.orgcontenterdogan-rejects-call-privileged-partnership-between- turkey-eu, accessed at 1282014 57 overwhelmingly to support the Council‟s decision to move forward with Turkey and they agreed to open the accession negotiation. 135 In the negotiation process, 13 chapters of 35 “4-Free Movement of Capital”, “6-Company Law”, “7-Intellectual Property Law”, “10-Information Society and Media”, “12-Food Safety, Veterinary and Phytosanitary Policy”, “16- Taxation”, “18-Statistics”, “20-Enterprise and Industrial Policy”, “21-Trans- European Networks”, “25-Science and Research”, “27-Environment”, “28- Consumer and Health Protection”, “32-Financial Control” have been opened to negotiations so far and 1 of them “25-Science and Research” has been provisionally closed. Another eight negotiation chapters “1-Free Movement of Goods”, “3-Right of Establishment and Freedom to Provide Services”, “9- Financial Services”, “11-Agriculture and Rural Development”, “13-Fisheries”, “14-Transport Policy”, “29-Customs Union” and “30-External Relations” will not be opened until Turkey agrees to apply the additional protocol of the Ankara Association Agreement to Cyprus. 136 By seeing this negotiation process, it can be concluded that the negotiation between the EU-Turkey run very slow compared to Croatia which started negotiations in the same year with Turkey, in 2005, and has been completed in 2011 137 , while no more than 13 of 35 chapters of Turkey were opened until this year 2014. This situation occurred because the refusing countries such as France and Greece tended to complicate the negotiation process by not opening the chapters of negotiation. In 2007 France has declared that it will 135 Burak Akcapar, Turkeys New European Era: Foreign Policy on the Road to EU Membership, Rowman Littlefields Publisher, UK: 2007, p: 12 136 European Commission, Enlargement-Turkey Membership Status , 2013 database on-line, available at: http:ec.europa.euenlargementcountriesdetailed-country-informationturkeyindex_en.htm , accessed at 1282014 137 European Commission, Enlargement-Croatia Membership Status , 2013 database on-line, available at: http:ec.europa.euenlargementcountriesdetailed-country-informationcroatiaindex_en.htm . accessed at 1282014 58 not allow the opening of negotiations on 5 chapters and Greek Cypriot Administration unilaterally stated that it would block the opening of 6 chapters. It is a commitment of the EU to carry out the negotiations on chapters only on the basis of the relevant acquis. 138 There was no chapter opened in 2011 and in 2012 the negotiation accession process was halt and changed by the “Positive Agenda” proposed by EU commission to develop its Enlargement Strategy and to bring fresh dynamics into EU-Turkey relations. The agenda was such as intensified dialogue and cooperation on political reforms, visa, mobility and migration, energy, fight against terrorism, further participation of Turkey in Community programmes, town twinning, trade and the Customs Union, all issues included in the frozen chapters of the Acquis. As a result of the Working Groups meetings that was held on 17 May 2012 in Ankara with the participation of Stefan Füle, EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, a total of four closing benchmarks were confirmed to have been met by Turkey in three chapters. 139 Those are the positive and negative responses of EU toward Turkish accession. The negative response have been often felt by Turkey since the accession process begun particularly before the PM Erdogan leadership because in fact there were many EU actors attempt to block Turkish accession by any kind of reasons. However, in addition to negative response, the EU Commission also gave a lot of positive response to assist the Turkish accession process especially in Erdogan era, among those are by optimizing cooperation between Turkey and the European 138 Republic of Turkey-Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Turkey-EU Relations 139 Vincent Morelli, “European Union Enlargement: A Status Report on Turkey‟s Accession Negotiations”, p: 11 59 Union through the Positive Agenda offered by EU. But we need to review the real Turkeys goal from this accession. What Turkey purposes from this accession is the recognition of its existence in European Continent and being the permanent member of European Union. Then the “Positive Agenda” of EU for Turkey is not actually enough because if Turkey only expects to intensify its relation with EU, Turkey might have accepted the offer o f “Privileged Partnership” from Germany and France but it did not happen. Then, although there were some positive response from the European Union toward the Turkish accession such as support, the opening of negotiations, and intensifying cooperation; over all, the response of EU to the accession of Turkey remains relatively slow during Erdogan leadership compared to the other countries, but at least a lot of progress also happened in theTurkish accession during the leadership of Prime Minister Erdogan with his AKP party compared to the Turkeys previous government. 60 CHAPTER IV The Analysis of Turkey’s Foreign Policy and Its Motive to Become EU Member What has been done by Turkey‟s Government in the last 12 years has raised Turkeys name among the world talks. Turkey has owned almost all things needed by countries in the world; a strong and stable econ omy and also strong military defense. Since 2003 Turkey has been controlled by the AKP Party with Prime Minister Erdogan and since the time Turkeys economy began to soar up. In 2009 this country was in crisis but the government could recover it by only one year and finally from 2010 up to the day they can maintain the economic stability. In addition, in 2010 up to 2013, Turkeys role in the world politics was very prominent and influential and its relation with the superpower countries was intense. It can be seen from Turkeys proximity by the US and also China and Russia. These things make this country as one of the influential countries in the world politics circulation. The Turkeys maturity does not make this country shaky to keep pursuing the status of EU membership that has been fought since 51 years ago. Although it was the longest time to wait for the official status, Turkey remains in his stand for it. It was proved by the statements of the President, the Prime Minister, as well as the Turkish elites that said that they would not give up in the accession process. In addition, the negotiations with EU member countries made by Turkey for the sake of official status also describe the Turkeys consistency for the accession. In this case, the decision to follow the pattern and keep pursuing an official status of 61 European Union is Turkeys foreign policy toward the EU. And in this chapter the Turkeys foreign policy will be analyzed.

A. The Determinant Factors Of Foreign Policy Of Turkey In Maintaining Its