Abstract:

European Union EU concludes free trade agreements FTA with the third countries in line with its “new trade strategy” and “Europe 2020 Strategy” established in 2006 and 2010, respectively. Turkey has established an Association Agreement with the EU in 1963 by signing the so-called Ankara Agreement and started to conduct customs union CU in the last stage of its partnership. According to the decision taken by the Turkey-EU Association Council numbered 1/95 on 6th March 1995 the parties started to implement CU in between and Turkey assumed the responsibility to be in line with the EU’s common trade policy. By gaining the opportunity to sell their goods to Turkey without paying any customs duties through the EU, third countries behave reluctant to conduct FTAs with Turkey besides the EU which affects the economy of Turkey negatively. As the EU is in the aim of concluding FTAs with the most developed countries and the major economic blocks, there is the possibility to worsen the economy of Turkey in case these countries do not conclude FTAs with Turkey. Due to the importance of the situation Turkey started to consider its CU with the EU and whether to establish a FTA instead of implementing the CU On the other hand, the declaration of the UK’s Prime Minister David Cameron that if the Conservative Party wins the next election he will hold a referendum regarding the UK’s EU membership and the discussions of the future of the EU which is struggling with the economic crisis since 2008 increased the concerns of resolution of the EU. However, the search of the small states which also established CU with the EU such as Andorra and San Marino to increase their level of integration with the EU, the proposals regarding deepening the relations of the EU with its south neighbours after the “Arab Spring” in the North Africa and the Middle East and finally, Turkish President Abdullah Gül’s declaration that Turkey can improve her relations with the EU by a model similar to Norway triggered the debates of enlarging the European Economic Area EEA established in 1994. There is the possibility that the EU recommend that the parties to modernise and extend the CU to services, public procurement and energy by implementing “an extended CU” in line with its new trade strategy which may give the chance to renegotiate the current implementation. However, this study finds out that the real problem lies behind the bottlenecks of Turkey’s accession membership process to the EU. Therefore, considering that the way of revising an agreement in the international law can either be by an amendment or conducting a new one, this study proposes to establish a new agreement to increase the current integration of Turkey to the EU by taking the model of the EU integration process itself. The study reached the conclusion that establishing a new treaty comprising of two stages which may called “a comprehensive economic integration treaty with the goal of full membership” and “a political integration treaty of Turkey to the EU” not only can abolish the risk of privileged partnership but also will give the opportunity to eliminate the negative impacts of the current CU implementation.

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