Evaluation Note/ N. Murat Ersavcı

Everyone seems to agree that the time has come to expand the Customs Union between Turkey and the European Union. A quarter of a century has gone by since it was launched at the start of 1996. At the time it was considered a step towards the full political and economic integration of Turkey into the EU. That is why it was modelled on the ‘Zollverein’, a 19th century customs union between German states. Turkey had – and still has – no objection to that. It has also been promised full EU membership, which in either case would supersede the customs union.

But despite the passage of time, the accession negotiations opened in 2005 never led to membership. Turkey is no further than where it was then. The basic reason for this is that the EU chose to admit a much later and smaller applicant for EU Accession, Greek Cyprus, and then allowing them to manoeuvre the entire EU into solidarity with it, making the EU a party to the dispute and creating an ever-widening split between Turkey and Europe.

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