Turkish Accession to the EU: Satisfying the Copenhagen Criteria

Is Turkey on the way to meet the economic Copenhagen criteria?

The enlargement process that the European Union faced the last decade stirred the debate again about the role Turkey has to play and whether or not Turkey should be part of the European Union. While the enlargement with the Central and East European countries of the former Soviet Union was a logical process, given the strong trade relationships and the political and historical context of these countries, the potential enlargement with Turkey is much more complex and controversial.

The main innovation of the present study is that it unravels the complexity of the Turkish case by approaching the problem from different angles in a comprehensive way. In particular, by tuning in on the historic, political and economic processes, new insights are obtained about the feasibility of Turkish accession to the EU. By combining lessons from the existing literature, the use of new data and the analysis of the political economic processes, a new perspective on the enlargement question – with the key Copenhagen criteria used as a corner stone - is offered.

Eric Faucompret is Professor of International Relations, University of Antwerp, Belgium.

Jozef Konings is Professor of Economics at the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL), Belgium.