Dr. Bahadir Kaleagasi, Representative to the EU and UNICE – Brussels
TUSIAD – Turkish Industry&Business Association,www.tusiad.org
Turkey’s membership in the European Union is a gradually evolving
process. The main tasks towards membership are to transform Turkey’s
potential into political, economic, social and cultural assets for Europe’s
future; to solve today’s problems; and to set, if still necessary, transitional
periods for some aspects of the membership.
The EU has a demanding agenda: institutional reforms, enlargement
process, economic competitiveness, viability of the social system and the
political and security stakes at the global level. In this context, Turkey’s
priorities and the EU’s challenges in the 21st century converge more than
ever before. Europe’s Global Economic Competitiveness
(Lisbon Strategy) Turkish business community fully supports
the EU’s Lisbon agenda and underlines the
potential contributions of the country’s
membership to Europe’s global competitiveness:
- Turkish economy is the world's 18th
largest. It exports mainly industrial goods
(%90). Its service sector accounts for 65
percent of its gross domestic product, and
the public procurement market amounts
to more than 30 billion euros. Full integration
into the EU of such a dynamic
economy will boost economic growth in
the EU.
- Turkey's full integration will bring the
fresh impetus to the internal market
with its dynamism, large market
demand, entrepreneurial culture and
trade creation potential.
- Benefits offered through this full integration
to the European businesses will
spill over to the EU citizens through
more and better job opportunities, more
competitive prices and better investment
opportunities.
- Successful institutional reforms in
Turkey, together with positive international
business reaction to the opening of
negotiations, will enable a rapid convergence
path toward the EU average values
for main economic indicators such as GDP
per capital and labour productivity.
- If Turkey takes measures to realize its full
productivity potential, she could create 6
million additional jobs by 2015 and achieve
annual GDP growth as high as 8.5 percent.
This would bring the GDP per capita in
Turkey to around 55% of the EU average
per capita income.
Social Europe Europe is facing a significant problem of an
aging population. The fertility rate has fallen
since 1965 while life expectancy has
 increased. With the current demographic
trends, Europe’s population is deemed to
decrease sharply. New member states with
lower fertility rates than the rest of EU
make the continent even older.
- Demographically, Turkey is a window of
opportunity for Europe. With a population
of 70 million people, Turkey has more than
30 percent of its population below 15 years
old (with a decreasing trend) and its demographic
growth is expected to be stabilised
by 2030 at about 85 million people.
- Turkey’s young, dynamic and qualified
human resource is the social insurance of
Europe. A Turkey engaged in the EU accession
process will benefit from higher economic
development as well as better and
more European education. Consequently,
Turkey’s human capital will be upgraded to
meet Europe’s standards and needs.
Constitutional Debate Here is a chance and challenge for Europe:
A stronger Union requires more effort, better
governance and radical restructuring of
European institutions. As has been the case in previous enlargement
waves, dynamism brought by the
prospect of new members creates the
necessity and opportunity to restructure
the EU institutions. EU as a Global Player
As an enlarging Union of over 450 million
people, producing a quarter of the world’s
GNP, the EU is inevitably a global player
committed to sharing the responsibility for
global security and building a better world. Turkey shares the commitment of the
European countries to deal peacefully with
disputes through cooperation under a multilateral
institutional framework. She also
shares the EU’s aspiration to create a zone
of security and prosperity for European
people internally and on the world stage.
Furthermore, Turkey is aware that tackling
today’s complex security struggles, contemporary
global problems and the intensive
security agenda necessitates close cooperation
more than ever before. Turkey, which
has always positioned its foreign and security
policy in line with that of the Union,
is ready to play her part to make the EU
a stronger global player:
- As a secular democracy with a predominantly
Muslim population, Turkey offers
the anti-thesis for the clash of civilizations
scenario. Turkey's acceptance will
give a positive message to the Muslim
world and relieve the feelings of alienation
of 12 million Muslims living in
Europe as EU citizens.
- Turkey will make the EU stronger in its
fight against terrorism, illegal immigration,
xenophobia and racism, organised
crime, trafficking of drugs, arms, and
human beings…
- Turkey's geo-strategic position will
enable the EU to be in a pivotal position to
exert its influence and spread its values in
the Balkans, Caucasus, Central Asia and
the Middle East with a view of establishing
stability, peace, democracy as well as market
economy in these regions.
- As stable democratic country - with close
political, cultural and commercial ties to
countries possessing the world's largest
natural gas and oil sources in the Caspian
Sea and Near East – Turkey will contribute
to the security of the EU’s energy policies. The Turkish business community has firmly
supported Turkey’s EU membership perspective
and is determined to solve any
problem that the membership perspective
puts on the foreground of the agenda.
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