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Delcour questions Turkish membership in the EU in the foreseeable future

Posted on: 11/28/2007

On November 12, 2007 Dr. Laure Delcour spoke on the European Union (EU) enlargement and the Turkish accession in a packed Goldwin Smith Lewis Auditorium. Delcour, who is a senior fellow at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations in Paris, focused her speech on the EU enlargement method and instruments, the specific issues raised by Turkish accession and the current debate in the EU about Turkey's accession, including differences among Member States and the Commission. The Director of the Mario Einaudi Center, Nic van de Walle, welcomed Dr. Delcour as a speaker of the Center’s Foreign Policy Initiative. The question and answer session was moderated by Professor Christopher Anderson of the Government Department.

The debate over Turkey’s inclusion into the European Union (EU) has created fierce debate throughout the international world. In her talk, Dr. Laure Delcour placed the debate into a European context. She gave a brief history of the relationship between Turkey and the rest of Europe. Turkey officially applied for full membership in 1987, but since has been left out of the European agenda’s top priorities. Turkey has suffered from the fact that the design of the EU enlargement strategy in the early 90s with methods and tools tailor-made to the needs of newly independent countries born out of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989.


Despite these developments, Turkey was granted the status of a candidate for accession into the EU in 1999. The official negotiations began in October 2005. Turkey’s accession into the EU would be judged “on the basis of the same criteria as applied to the other candidate states.” The EU’s accession criteria have three main pillars: political criteria, economic criteria, and the adoption of the acquis communautaire, i.e., the ability to fulfill the obligations stemming from EU membership. Delcour stated that while Turkey had made “substantial progress” towards the fulfillment of these pillars. Despite this, Delcour noted that Turkey had “made little progress with respect to the influence of the army (in political affairs).” It had also made “uneven progress” in the adoption of the acquis communautaire.

Dr. Delcour elaborated on specific issues raised during the discussion of Turkish accession. First, there is tension between Turkey and other member states, who have recognized the Armenian massacres as a genocide; however, recognition by Turkey of the genocide is not part of the political criteria for membership. Second, the EU and the European Parliament (EP) has condemned PKK as a terrorist organization and has also expressed their understanding over Turkey’s concerns, while at the same supporting a political solution. The final issue is the contention over Cyprus. Turkey is committed to a comprehensive settlement of the “Cyprus problem” under the United Nations, but has not taken steps to honor their promise. As a result, in November 2006, the European Commission (EC) recommended to partially suspend membership negotiations due to the lack of progress on the Cyprus issue.

Delcour concluded her talk by explaining how the question of Turkish accession has been raised three challenges that the EU must solve and the prospect for Turkish accession. First, “there is a lack of valid criteria for defining Europe.” Second, there is a need to delineate the European Union’s borders; “where does the EU end?” Finally, “there is a need to design a project for the EU.” Delcour noted that the EU must clarify its objectives and final purpose. The prospects for Turkish accession, however, still remain years away. She expects that it would take until 2014 or 2020 before Turkey could fulfill the accession criteria. However, there is a remaining debate over whether non-accession is possible. Currently 48% of EU citizens are against Turkey joining the EU, with only 38% in support of its accession. Asked about this public opinion, Delcour stated that this reflects EU citizens’ fears; “fear of a Muslim Europe, fear of immigrants to a certain extent fear of economic competition, fear of getting closer to true conflict areas, but also resentment against the EU for not being associated to the decision making process and for being left aside from the previous enlargement.”

Dr. Delcour’s talk was part of the Foreign Policy Initiative at Cornell led by the Einaudi Center and co-sponsored by the Institute for European Studies and the U.S. Delegation of the European Commission as part of the EU Speaker Series.

Contact Information
Heike Michelsen
Einaudi Center
255 8926
hm75@cornell.edu

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