Europe’s Changing Architecture: Notes on Rethinking the EU-Turkey Relationship

GTE Policy Brief (Istituto Affari Internazionali) No. 16, 30 April 2014, 5 p.

Rosa Balfour *

2015 will mark 10 years of accession negotiations. Fast-forward to 2015, Turkey will have been through three election rounds and possibly deep political changes in a decade that has been characterised by the unchallenged government of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). In the EU, the leadership changes of 2014 will provide new faces and there are also deeper trends and opportunities within the EU which could help the two redefine their relationship: internally, the process of European integration is showing signs of shifting away from the « ever closer union » model to one with far greater differentiation and complexity. Externally, the events of the past few years could lead to a fundamental rethinking of the EU’s relations with its neighbours as well as a strategic reassessment of its friends and allies. This short paper aims to explore the options that may be on the table for rethinking EU-Turkey relations in the context of the debate on the future of European integration.

* Rosa Balfour heads the Europe in the World programme at the European Policy Centre (EPC), Brussels.

Document prepared for the Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI) in the context of the IAI-Istanbul Policy Center-Mercator Foundation project « Turkey, Europe and the World », April 2014.

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