BRUSSELS: Brussels is taking steps to reinforce EU trade links with Turkey despite disunity over Ankara’s stalled membership bid and months of rancour with president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
One week after Austria tried and failed to halt EU accession talks with Ankara, the European Commission is seeking to stabilise relations by advancing long-delayed plans to deepen the bloc’s customs union with the country.
Cecilia Malmström, trade commissioner, is now seeking the approval of member states to begin talks to update the 20-year old arrangement with Turkey, which covers industrial goods but not agriculture, services or public procurement.By including such sectors, Brussels is seeking to boost €140bn in annual trade with Ankara.The move could ultimately prove a fillip for the country’s economy — the EU is Turkey’s biggest trade partner — at a time when it has been under pressure from rising US interest rates and the fallout from a failed coup attempt in July.
Some European diplomats argue that broadening the customs union deal would also extend the bloc’s soft power by obliging Turkey to bring areas such as public procurement and dispute settlement in line with EU regulations and practice. But a senior European official who closely tracks Turkey described the Commission’s request for a negotatiating mandate from member states as merely the first stage in a “low key” process that would be unlikely to make much progress without a “massive domestic improvement” in conditions in the country.
Mr Erdogan’s clampdown on opponents after the failed coup attempt has soured relations with EU politicians — even though leaders such as Angela Merkel, German chancellor, are anxious to shore up a controversial deal with Ankara that has helped to curtail migrant flows into Europe. More than 30,000 people have been jailed since the coup attempt and more than 100,000 soldiers, judges, teachers and civil servants have been dismissed or suspended.
Given concern in Brussels at the force of the purge, one official said unanimity among EU member states was a de facto requirement for any progress on customs union. But it is not only Austria that has concerns about deepening ties with Turkey. Some diplomats in Brussels have suggested France may be reluctant to pursue a customs negotiation with Turkey before presidential elections in the spring.
Mr Erdogan has also worried EU officials by threatening to allow 3m refugees into Europe, leading senior diplomats to question whether €600m in financial aid to the country should be reviewed.The Turkish president was particulary angered by an overwhelming but non-binding vote of the European Parliament to stop accession talks in protest at what a motion said was the “repressive” and “disproportionate” response to the coup attempt.
