[FR] EU-Turkey: the urgent need for closer strategic cooperation

As the Americans have announced their intention to redeploy their capabilities from Europe to Asia and expect Europeans to take greater responsibility for their own security, instability in Europe’s neighbourhood continues to grow, prompting Europeans to actively rethink their relations with other regional actors, such as Turkey.

In this Policy Paper, published in partnership with the Bosphorus Institute, Elvire Fabry reviews recent developments in the EU, Turkey and their neighbourhood and calls for a revival of the Euro-Turkish dialogue – stifled by the current status quo in accession negotiations – through joint reflection on neighbourhood issues.

Building on new areas of convergence between the EU and Turkey in the region, she explores various fields (security, support for democracy and civil society in Arab countries, energy, trade and labour mobility) in which joint initiatives could be launched to help stabilise the region and ensure its sustainable growth.

By shifting the focus of EU-Turkey relations from accession negotiations alone to common neighbourhood issues, this relaunch of the dialogue between the EU and Turkey would aim to make Turkey a strategic partner as of now, without prejudice to the outcome of the accession negotiations.