Helsinki European Summit :: European Union and Turkey

1. INTRODUCTION It is certain that being a member of the European Union (EU) is a very hot debate for Turkey since 1950s. According to some journalists, Turkey-EU relations remind you of a couple who live together without a legal marriage bond. Though, this process has evolved for the past fifty years and effected both interior and exterior relations of Turkey with the other states and vice versa. Whether Turkey’s own internal problems or to qualitative changes in European integration over time, her efforts at adaptation are significantly older than most of the other candidate countries. Turkey is ahead of the countries that are seen as our equals regarding the admission criteria. When the historical facts based on the agreements and acts are examined, the EU-Turkey relations could be divided into three parts; such as â€Å"preparation†, â€Å"transition† and â€Å"final† periods. Preparation period could be considered as the establishment of the first relations between European Economic Community by Ankara Agreement and transition period is seen as the way to the full membership of Turkey by being a member of the Customs Union Joint. In this case, Helsinki Summit would be the heart of the ongoing process. Most of the thinkers and academicians assume that Helsinki Summit paved the way for Turkey's full membership to the EU. For this reason it would be the final period. Most of the comments and criteria were finalized and EU Commission declared its most recent opinion on enlargement process and submitted its views on each country expecting to become a member at the Summit. In this context Helsinki Summit would be the main theme of the paper. While depicting the importance of the summit for Turkey, the Turkey-EU relations would also be explained briefly. Since this study has its own limitations, in spite of a vast amount of source –journals, speeches, official records and more- the case would be examined in a descriptive perspective and would follow the chronological line of the case. 2. THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF TURKEY-EU RELATIONS European Union (EU) has been through a series of transformations from the date it was established. First Organization of European Economic Community (OEEC) has developed day by day and came to the point where it is today. The idea of EEC was to establish a peaceful and integrated Europe after the Second World War. For this reason, the main theme of the ongoing organization has never been changed during the process of transformation.