The economics of Turkish accession

Centre for European Reform T: 00 44 20 7233 1199 29 Tufton Street F: 00 44 20 7233 1117 London SW1P 3QL UK info@cer.org.uk / www.cer.org.uk Countries that want to join the EU need to comply with four accession criteria: One is political, one is related to EU law and two concern economics. Turkey has already made much headway with fulfilling the EU’s criteria on democracy, the rule of law and minority rights. Although the EU will continue to watch Turkish politics closely, the main focus of the accession negotiations – scheduled to start in October – will be on economics. According to the so-called Copenhagen accession criteria, EU aspirants need to have a well-functioning market economy and they need to be able to compete within the EU’s single market. In its 2004 assessment report on Turkey, the European Commission concluded that despite good progress in recent years Turkey did not yet fulfil either condition. So Turkey still has a lot of work to do to get its economy fit for membership. The economic entry criteria are vague, and that is intentional: They allow the EU to get involved in everything from banking sector liberalisation to education policy. If previous enlargements are anything to go by, the EU will be making a lot of demands on Turkey.