Publication

This paper discusses whether Turkey has met the Copenhagen political criteria and whether to open EU accession negotiations. It summarizes the Copenhagen political criteria and illustrates how they were applied in the 2004 enlargement. It then reviews Turkey’s progress in relation to the most sensitive areas covered under the Copenhagen criteria such as the role of the military, human rights, minority rights and the judiciary. It further identifies 20 steps that could be taken in the next few months by the Turkish government with a view to securing a positive decision.