Turkey, Its Neighbors and the West - Robert Bosch Stiftung

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A Privileged Partnership Between Turkey and the EU: What Does It Mean?
By Kemal Kiri¸sci and Nathalie Tocci
opponents of Turkish membership to the eu have been advocating the notion of a “privileged partnership” as an alternative. In both
Turkey and the eu, many have rejected this idea, arguing that such a relationship already exists and that the actual content of the
“relationship” being offered remains terribly vague. Indeed, there are no specific proposals that articulate what such a relationship
might entail.
More importantly, the existing “privileged partnership” in the form of the eu-Turkey Customs union is not a privileged relationship
at all. It allows eu business people to travel to Turkey freely, while enabling Turkish goods (such as consumer durables, cars, buses,
textiles, etc.) to enter the eu. While the same cannot be said about Turkish businessmen (let alone all citizens), who are prevented
by the schengen visa requirements from traveling hassle free to europe to promote their products.
furthermore, the Customs union requires Turkey to implement the eu’s Common external Tariff. This works to the disadvantage of
Turkey, especially when the eu signs free trade agreements with third-party countries. In such cases, Turkey is bound to implement
the terms of these agreements, but third-party countries are not obliged to open their markets to Turkey. This penalizes Turkish
business enormously and prevents it from competing for a fair share of third country markets. Ironically, this has helped spur Turkey’s
recent entrance into markets in its immediate neighborhood, as well as in africa and asia.
If advocates of a “privileged partnership” with Turkey hope to advance their cause, they need to address these problems first. Turkish
officials and business interests argue that Turkey accepted the imbalance present in the Customs union agreement only with the
understanding that it represented a first step toward full membership. In the absence of membership, the imbalance becomes a
burden, and an additional source of distrust with the eu.
finally, proponents of the “privileged partnership” argument undermine the credibility and effectiveness of Turkey’s eu accession
process, which, to date, remains the only framework in which eu-Turkey relations exist. Turkey does not have a “right to membership.”
Yet, it does have a right to being treated according to the eu’s norms, rules, and procedures as determined by Turkey’s accession
negotiations framework, which stipulates that, as with other candidates, Turkey’s negotiations are “open-ended.”
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Yet the open-endedness of the process and the parameters of failure are determined by the negotiating process itself: i.e., Turkey’s
compliance or noncompliance with eu conditions. hence, emphasizing the open-endedness of negotiations and airing concepts of
“privileged partnership” are either an affirmation of the obvious – that Turkey’s full membership is not a foregone conclusion – or
they are an expression of bad faith. both undermine any semblance of trust between the eu and Turkey, while casting a dark shadow
over the eu’s reputation in the broader region.
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