TURKEY-EU RELATIONS

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TURKEY-EU RELATIONS

• A Reluctant Candidate or A Moving Target?

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HISTORICAL CONTEXT

• The Association Agreement between Turkey and the
  then EEC was signed in 1963 and entered in force
  in December 1964.
• Turkey and the EU formed a customs union in 1995.
• The Helsinki European Council of December 1999
  granted the status of candidate country to
  Turkey.
• Accession negotiations with Turkey were opened in
  October 2005.

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HISTORICAL CONTEXT

• So far, negotiations have been opened on eight
  chapters (Enterprise and Industry, Statistics,
  Financial Control, Trans-European Networks,
  Consumer and Health Protection, Intellectual
  Property Law, Company Law) one of which (Science
  and Research) was provisionally closed.
• The EU informed Turkey about the progress needed
  to reach a satisfactory level of preparedness to
  start negotiations on eleven chapters.

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HURDLES ON THE WAY TO MEMBERSHIP

• Political criteria democracy, the rule of law,
  human rights, respect for and protection of
  minorities.
• Ability to assume the obligations of membership

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POLITICAL CRITERIADemocracy and the Rule of Law

• Constitutional and legislative reform
• ?New Constitution No draft has been presented
  either to the public or to parliament.
• ? The Law on Associations, the new Penal Code
  and the Law on Intermediate Courts of Appeal have
  not yet entered into force
• ? Judicial reform Efficiency and effectiveness
  of the judiciary have to be improved concerns
  remain about the independence and impartiality of
  the judiciary

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POLITICAL CRITERIADemocracy and the Rule of Law

• ? Implementation Measures need to be further
  consolidated and broadened, esp in such fields as
  the fight against torture and ill-treatment,
  freedom of expression, freedom of religion,
  women's rights, International Labour Organisation
  (ILO) standards including trade union rights, and
  minority rights.

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POLITICAL CRITERIADemocracy and the Rule of Law

• Party closure cases
• ? Justice and Development Party (AKP)
  finalized funds to be cut off by 50 for
  anti-secular activities
• ? Democratic Society Party (DTP) pending
  accused of activities against the unity and
  integrity of the country
• Civilian oversight of the military
  significant political influence via formal and
  informal mechanisms on issues including Cyprus,
  secularism, political parties and other
  non-military developments.

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POLITICAL CRITERIADemocracy and the Rule of Law

• Reluctance of the political authority The
  government has not put forward a consistent and
  comprehensive programme of political and
  constitutional reforms.
• The Government failed to prepare a comprehensive
  anti-corruption strategy.
• e.g.Deniz Feneri case fraud case against the
  charity association Deniz Feneri in Germany with
  connections in Turkey

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POLITICAL CRITERIAHuman Rights the Protection
of Minorities

• Ratification of human rights instruments. The
  Optional Protocol to the UN Convention against
  Torture (OPCAT), signed in September 2005, has
  not been ratified. The ratification of the UN
  Convention on the Rights of Persons with
  Disabilities is pending. Turkey has not ratified
  three additional Protocols to the European
  Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)

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POLITICAL CRITERIAHuman Rights the Protection
of Minorities

• Freedom of expression
• ? Article 301 and other legal provisions that
  restrict freedom of expression
• ? statements by senior figures strongly
  criticising the press, in particular following
  press reports on alleged corruption cases and the
  fight against terrorism.
• ? disproportionate website bans, including the
  You Tube site

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POLITICAL CRITERIAHuman Rights the Protection
of Minorities

• Freedom of assemblyLegal framework is broadly in
  line with European standards. However, as regards
  implementation, arbitrary limitations have been
  applied.

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POLITICAL CRITERIAHuman Rights the Protection
of Minorities

• Freedom of association There have been
  improvements to the legal framework on freedom of
  association.However, some associations faced
  disproportionate administrative difficulties or
  judicial proceedings.
• Civil society organisations Governmental bodies
  regularly consult NGOs.However, consultations are
  held on an ad hoc basis, with unclear selection
  criteria, and do not result intangible policy
  outputs.

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POLITICAL CRITERIAHuman Rights the Protection
of Minorities

• Freedom of religion Freedom of worship continues
  to be generally respected.
• ? The Law on Foundations adopted in February
  2008 addresses a number of property issues
  regarding non-Muslim minorities.
• ?Alevis The government announced an initiative
  aimed at improving dialogue with this community
  and addressing its concerns. However, the
  government's initiative has not been followed
  through. Alevis continue to face the same
  problems as before, in particular as regards
  education and places of worship.

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POLITICAL CRITERIAHuman Rights the Protection
of Minorities

• Women's rights
• ? Awareness-raising activities have been
  organised for members of the judiciary, law
  enforcement bodies and the general public.
• ? There are some notable examples of high-level
  presence of women in Turkish society in business,
  academia, the civil service and politics.
  However, gender equality remains a major
  challenge
• Participation by women in the labour force is low
  (24.8 in 2007), and on a decreasing trend.
• Political representation of women, at both
  national and regional levels, is very low.
• Women's access to education is the lowest among
  the EU Member States and the OECD countries.
• Domestic violence, honour killings, and early and
  forced marriages are still a serious problem.

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POLITICAL CRITERIAHuman Rights the Protection
of Minorities

• Labour rights and trade unions The pending
  legislation amending the Trade Unions and
  Collective Bargaining, Strike and Lockout Laws
  has not moved forward substantially. Turkey needs
  to ensure that trade union rights are fully
  respected in line with EU standards and the
  relevant International Labour Organisation (ILO)
  conventions, in particular the rights to
  organise, to strike and to bargain collectively.

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POLITICAL CRITERIAHuman Rights the Protection
of Minorities

• Minority rightsIn accordance with the 1923
  Treaty of Lausanne, Turkey considers Turkish
  citizens as individuals with equal rights before
  the law, rather than as individuals belonging to
  the majority or to a minority. The EU holds that
  this should not prevent Turkey from granting
  specific rights to certain Turkish citizens on
  the grounds of their ethnic origin, religion or
  language.The EU believes that full respect for
  and protection of language, culture and freedom
  of association, assembly, expression and religion
  and effective participation in public life for
  all citizens irrespective of their background or
  origin have yet to be fully achieved.

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POLITICAL CRITERIAHuman Rights the Protection
of Minorities

• TRT - the public service broadcaster recently
  launched a new channel broadcasting in Kurdish
  all day long on a national basis.
• Children whose mother tongue is not Turkish
  cannot learn it in the Turkish public schooling
  system. Such education can be provided only by
  private educational institutions. However, in the
  case of Kurdish, courses which had opened
  following the changes to the law have now been
  out of business due to lack of demand.

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POLITICAL CRITERIAHuman Rights the Protection
of Minorities

• Situation in the East and South-East Terrorist
  attacks by the PKK, which is on the EU list of
  terrorist organisations, continued in the
  South-East, but also throughout the country and
  claimed many lives. Following parliament's
  authorisation the government ordered air strikes
  against terrorist hideouts in Northern Iraq.

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POLITICAL CRITERIARegional issues and
international obligations

• Cyprus The Turkish government has continued to
  express its commitment to a comprehensive
  settlement of the Cyprus problem under the
  auspices of the United Nations. It welcomed the
  start of full-fledged negotiations in September
  between the leaders of the two Cypriot
  communities under the Good Offices Mission of the
  UN Secretary General.

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POLITICAL CRITERIARegional issues and
international obligations

• Turkey and Greece have continued their efforts to
  improve bilateral relations, with the exception
  of mutual accusations of airspace violations.
  Exploratory talks towards the resolution of
  border disputes have been continuing since 2002.

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ABILITY TO ASSUME THE OBLIGATIONS OF MEMBERSHIP

• Foreign, security and defence policy Turkeys
  alignment with the EUs common foreign and
  security policy continues. The regular political
  dialogue between the EU and Turkey covers
  international issues of common interest such as
• Iraq Turkey continued to support efforts to
  achieve stability, security and national
  reconciliation. Cross-border terrorist activities
  of the PKK pose a security challenge to Turkey
  last year Turkey launched air strikes and
  undertook a ground operation in Northern Iraq.
  Turkey intensified diplomatic exchanges with
  Iraqi authorities and, for the first time,
  engaged in official contacts with the Kurdish
  regional government.

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ABILITY TO ASSUME THE OBLIGATIONS OF MEMBERSHIP

• Iran Turkey supports the EU position on Irans
  nuclear programme and encouraged Iran to engage
  in a diplomatic solution of the crisis. Turkey
  has engaged in negotiations with Iran on a
  comprehensive energy agreement. In 2008, the two
  countries signed a co-operation agreement to
  fight against terrorism, drug trafficking and
  organized crime.

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ABILITY TO ASSUME THE OBLIGATIONS OF MEMBERSHIP

• Southern Caucasus Turkey maintains close
  relations with Azerbaijan and Georgia. While
  Turkey keeps its land border closed with Armenia,
  Turkey's President paid the first ever
  presidential visit to Erevan. Official
  discussions also took place between the two
  countries Foreign Ministers. In order to address
  the Armenian claims of genocide regarding the
  events of 1915, Turkey maintains its offer to
  establish a joint commission of historians.
  Turkey has also started efforts to facilitate the
  solution of the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh. A
  first ever trilateral meeting took place between
  the Foreign Ministers of Turkey, Azerbaijan and
  Armenia.

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ABILITY TO ASSUME THE OBLIGATIONS OF MEMBERSHIP

• The Middle East In line with the EU position,
  Turkey continued to support the Middle East peace
  process playing an active and constructive role.
  Turkey brokered indirect talks between Syria and
  Israel with a view to preparing a peace agreement
  between the two countries.However, Turkish Prime
  Minister Erdogans heated debate in Davos with
  the Israeli President concerning the Israeli
  operations in Gaza has raised concerns about
  Turkeys mediator role in the Middle East.

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• Thank you very much