Turkey, the EU, and freedom in the world: An examination of EU accession through the lens of dat

The debate over Turkey’s preparedness for
EU entry thus benefits from further assessment of its
performance using available analytical tools. One such tool is
Freedom House’s annual Freedom in the World (FIW) survey.
The evidence here indicates that Turkey is in a position
different from all other candidates and that it could benefit
from more active engagement than the EU is now offering. Turkey
is a valuable ally to Europe and the West as a whole, and the
EU should encourage positive trends in any way it can,
says 
Sarah Repucci

in her article published by 
Insight Turkey

.

Introduction 

Turkey’s candidacy for the European
Union is perhaps the most controversial and
therefore well-analyzed of any in the history
of the organization. The themes of the debate
are familiar: human rights abuses, overly
dominant military, and the role of Islam on the
one hand, versus strategic partner, valid
applicant, and the benefits of embracing a
Muslim democracy on the other. The interplay
among these factors will determine
Turkey’s progress toward membership over
the next few years. 

However, in theory the EU determines
membership eligibility based on a set of
objective criteria that do not take diplomatic
concerns into account. Because Turkey has
already been accepted as a part of Europe (as
opposed to Morocco, whose application has been
rejected on geographic grounds), it should be
possible to evaluate its performance in
comparison to these criteria and to the status
of other EU candidates, past and present, at
key stages in the accession process. Using
other candidate countries as a frame of
reference, we can assess whether Turkey’s
application is progressing on schedule, or
whether it is moving along more slowly than one
would expect. 

This is a very sensitive issue, given
charges of EU bias against Turkey as a
predominantly Muslim state. If Turkey has in
fact fulfilled all membership criteria, the
notion that its religion is having a negative
impact on its progress in the EU accession
process would be more credible. However, if
Turkey has not yet reached the same standard as
other candidates in the core areas that
determine European standards, the bias charge
would be less compelling.

The debate over Turkey’s preparedness
for EU entry thus benefits from further
assessment of its performance using available
analytical tools. One such tool is Freedom
House’s annual Freedom in the World (FIW)
survey. For more than 30 years, Freedom in the
World has gathered data on political rights and
civil liberties on countries worldwide.
Although these data are not geared specifically
for the EU, the similarities with EU criteria
make the data a useful tool for comparisons
across countries and across time. Moreover,
these data can be used to determine thresholds
for countries moving through the stages of the
EU accession process.

Using Freedom in the World data, this
article tracks the performance of candidates
for EU membership as they progressed in the
accession process, and compares the trends with
data on Turkey. The evaluation suggests that
while Turkey’s progress is not out of line
when compared with the experience of other
candidates, a prompt start for negotiations
would be of great benefit to both Turkey and
the EU.

To read the article in full, visit the Freedom House website

.

Sarah Repucci

is a researcher at Freedom House. She is the
managing editor of Freedom House’s
Countries at the Crossroads survey and an
analyst on Turkey.