Turkish and EU representatives to meet on security cooperation
A Turkey-EU political dialogue will be held today in Brussels, with the topic of Turkish accession to the EU to top the agenda.
Accession negotiations began in October 2005 but stalled due to Turkey’s failure to meet EU standards regarding democracy and protections of human rights.
In the medium-term, progress on accession is unlikely to advance, even with new political leadership in Brussels. Incoming President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen has already expressed her disappointment with Turkey’s failure to fully address persistent issues, from extrajudicial imprisonment of journalists to poor conditions in refugee camps.
Further, Turkey’s more recent migration policies vis-à-vis the Syrian refuge crisis has been a major point of concern for Brussels. Ankara’s extortionist stance toward migration—namely, its threatening to resettle upwards of a million Syrian refugees to the EU by opening its western borders unless it receives more funding from the international community—has spiked tensions and raised concerns that Ankara has little intention of directly addressing the issue of poor migrant camp conditions.
In the long-term, accession is not impossible, but it will require Ankara to first and foremost convincingly address allegations of human and civil rights abuse.
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