The Economics of the Accession Process: A Multidimensional and Policy-orientated Approach for Turkey

Abstract

Turkey has started accession negotiations with the EU. This major step towards Turkish membership of the EU implies many changes and challenges for both sides, and undoubtedly creates complexities. It also means that Turkey has to follow the EU agenda more closely than ever in order to comply with the requirements of the accession process. Simultaneously, the EU is evolving very fast within the global order, in which not only the gap between developed and developing states but also the gap between ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ in individual societies and nations increases. The efforts to overcome these gaps and the need for more convergence in the enlarged union are reflected within the EU and its individual member states vis-à-vis specific policy choices, and provides a strong incentive to accelerate reforms at all levels, as manifested in the recent efforts of the Barosso Commission.

The solution does not at all lie in a rejection of globalization or a retreat into new forms of autarchy, but in the deliberate invention and building of a new institutional setting that will govern the process of increasing interdependence and integration among countries, regions, and peoples of the world. (Derviş, 2005, p. 6)