The EU should seek “constructive engagement” with Turkey in response to president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s re-election and the geopolitical ramifications of Russia’s war against Ukraine, the bloc’s diplomatic arm has proposed.
Erdoğan last week called for Brussels to re-engage with Turkey after years of frozen progress on its formal bid to become an EU member, linking the demand to his decision to lift a veto on EU member Sweden joining Nato.
Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine has forced a rethink of the EU’s attitude to its neighbours. Ukraine and Moldova have both been designated official candidate countries and the long-stalled accession talks with six western Balkan states have gained fresh impetus.
The new demand from Erdoğan — which EU officials said boiled down to his wish for greater access to the EU customs union, visa liberalisation for Turkish citizens and an extension of aid to Ankara linked to migration management — will be discussed on Thursday by EU foreign ministers and informed by the diplomatic arm’s proposal.
The ministers’ conclusions will form the basis of a European Commission report on the EU-Turkey relationship that will be discussed by EU leaders later this year. “We’re not swallowing the membership demand line whole,” said a senior EU official. “But there’s definitely a willingness from many of us to see where we can do more together.”
A €3bn funding package linked to Turkey’s hosting of Syrian refugees and discouraging them from travelling to Europe expires this year, but two EU officials said an extension of that was already baked into calculations over Brussels’ future budgetary requirements.
Progress on both visa liberalisation and Turkey’s participation in the bloc’s customs union is possible, according to people involved in the talks. But this would require movement from Ankara on issues such as data-sharing and anti-terror legislation, and trade measures seen as protectionist by Brussels.
EU members Cyprus and Greece are opposed to closer relations that do not include progress from Ankara on a UN-led initiative to normalise relations over the divided Mediterranean island. Some eastern EU states are also irritated by Erdoğan’s failure to adopt western sanctions against Russia and expand his trade relationship with Moscow.
Others also remain concerned about closer ties with a country where the EU has stated that rule of law and the protection of human rights are “key concerns”.
Yet the paper by the bloc’s diplomatic arm, seen by the Financial Times, called on foreign ministers to look at where “the EU could concentrate efforts on consolidating or increasing its leverage in relations with Turkey”, given Ankara’s new “geopolitical relevance” since Russia’s invasion.
“In the light of the shifting geopolitical context it is important to discuss the way forward on EU-Turkey relations in the short to the medium term,” it said.
A second EU official noted “certain change in approach from the new [Turkish] government, and we want to see where we might be able to go with that”. Erdoğan’s U-turn on Sweden was one a number of moves over recent weeks that have “de-escalated” tensions between Ankara and the west, as Turkey seeks to lure back foreign investors and stem its economic crisis.
“[Turkey] at least wants an open and frank decision on the difficult issues where we have differences,” the official added.
As a result, the bloc’s foreign ministers should discuss “further opportunities for the EU to build on existing strands, such as economic co-operation, migration management and climate change,” according to the paper, “and consider steps of constructive engagement that would allow the EU to be more effective in . . . exploring possibilities for cooperation.”
“The current geopolitical situation could trigger bridging divergences or opening new opportunities for targeted co-operation on the basis of convergence of the EU and Turkey foreign policy interests,” it added.
Source: Financial Times
