EU-Turkey: Unblocking the Stalemate towards an appropriate framework

The EU pursue five objectives in Turkey: (1) Prevention of the organization of an alternative Euro-pe by Russia and Turkey ( “Third Rome”) (2) Constitutional Treaty (3) Defense integration (4) Stabilization of Western Balkan (5) A compromise between French binding engagement of Ger-many and Germany’ asymmetrical federalization.
Greece and EU doesn’t want to engage with a country, which it perceives has an authoritarian bent, while Athens fears the perceived rise in Turkish power. Turkey on its side is in search of a Euro-pean anchor and doesn’t want to be excluded from the exploitation of the energy and mineral res-sources in the Eastern Mediterranean. Yet, negotiation is about a process of asserting value and creating value. Therefore an order of prioritized moves should be considered. I propose to proceed in the following manner Cöp:

EU-Turkey

• EU-Turkey Joint Action Plan on good governance, rule-of-law and human rights in conjunction with a Master-degree School in Istanbul on the same topics.
• Turkey-Transparency International Policy, Legislation & Institution-Building Package.
• Turkish Alignment with EU-CFSP Statements.
• Updating of EU-Türkiye Customs Union.
• EU-Turkey Sectoral High-Level Dialogues.
• Europol-MIT CT Dialogue: Intra-EU measures, Europol officers in Ankara, Dialogue between Europol-MIT Chiefs and operational cooperation at European and member states-level.
• Visa Liberalization.
• Ukraine Dialogue ( Global approach to Russia, review of EU Black Sea Synergy & NATO Black Sea posture).
• EU’s Central Asian Strategy to be reviewed in consulta-tion with Russia, India, China, and Turkey.
• Inter-Afghan Peace. Engagement of International community in Afghanistan in return for an UN-project portfolio on Xinjiang.

Turkey-Greece
• Bilateral declaration molded on Azeri-Türkiye program-me
• Bilateral Working Parties supervised by third party to be decided to be established in all fields of contention: airspace, maritime borders, continental shelves, the status of the islands in the Aegean, migrants.
• Energy cooperation on Cyprus
• Libya-Turkey-Greece Trilateral Border Commission.
• EuCo-Statement

Syria-Irak
• Regional Conference on Iraq: (1) progress package on Syria in return for DDR in Iraq by US-EU-UN. (2) Study on options on Middle Eastern futures (3) World Bank-Islamic Development Bank Comprehensive Investment Study on MENA-region
• Europol MED Organized Crime Reports with action plans.
• Implementation of Turkey-Irak cooperation agreements.
• Pipe-lines from Iraki oil & gas fields to EU via Turkey.
• Observer status of Irak in Barcelona-process.

Migration
• Resolution of outstanding issues.
• Modalities for the pay-out of remaining tranche.
• You name it.

EU-Jordan
• Support for inter-religious dialogue between Islam, Christianity & Judaism om ethical viewpoints: Broadcasting, Educational material, Successive rounds
• RWA-ME: Regional Water Authority -Middle East in Amman encompassing ISR, PA,EG,JD,SYR,LEB & Q8. Funded and founded by EU.



Litt:

Jean Botero, Clarisse Herrenschimdt & Jean Vernant Ancestor of the West: Writing, Reasoning and Religion in Mesopotamia, Elam and Greece, Chicago Press, 2003.

Iver B. Neumann & Einar Wigen The Steppe Tradition in International Relations Russians, Turks and European State-Building 4000BCE-2018 CE, Cambridge UP,2018.

Catherine Belton Putin’s People. How the KGB took back Russia and then took on the West, William Collins, 2021.