EU Accession No Longer Vital to Turkey’s Interests

This week David Cameron called Turkey the BRIC of Europe, but still we expect no progress on the EU issue. This week French foreign minister Bernard Koucher pledged France’s support for Turkey, but still we should expect no progress on the EU issue. The EU will publish a review of Turkey’s progess towards joining the EU, we expect it to show little progress on the EU issue. Until France, Germany and others remove their block, which won’t happen until Turkey opens its ports to Greece, which won’t happen until and so on and so forth – suffice to say we are firmly in the land of deadlock.

But the fact is the Turkish economy grew by more than 10% in the first half of this year, and is predicted to grow 7.5% for the year as a whole, that is growth that Europe’s developed economies like France and Germany can only dream of.

According to a report by HSBC this week emerging markets will be on top of the world table of purchasing power parity within three years; three years during which they will drive the global economic recovery. Turkey was mentioned in the report as one of the biggest drivers of growth. Investment in Turkey is increasing at a rapid rate, including property investment.

EU accession is no longer vital to Turkey’s interests.

This is a common sentiment, in a Hurriyet Daily News article this week titled Forget the EU, RICHARD REID wrote:

In any case, Europe’s closed door may be irrelevant to Turkey’s general prospects. At the moment the country’s global image is one of rude health. Admiring eyebrows are being raised in the capitals that count. Turkey is no longer a minor player. Its momentum should before long carry it to a point where Europeans will be the suitors. And then Turkey can ask them to wait.

EU membership is “no longer such a big deal” for Turkey says Tolga OZCAN, director of Antalya real estate agent New Home in Turkey.

“The Turkish economy enjoyed double-digit growth in both the first and second quarters, with 11.7% growth in the first quarter and 10.3% in the second quarter, compared to growth of 0.7% and 2% respectively for the EU27,” he said. “During this time the biggest growth was recorded in Slovakia with 4.6% in Q1 and 5% in Q2.”

He continued: “On top of that the European banking infrastructure is in disarray, with severe doubts over exactly what levels of bad loans still exist in Spanish, German, Irish and other banks. Compare this to Turkey’s banking system, which, heavily reformed in 2001 is in incredibly good shape.”