Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said that Turkey would be willing to unblock Swedish NATO membership if EU Member States “open the way” to Turkey’s bid for EU membership.
The Turkish leader made the comments in Ankara on Monday on the eve of the NATO alliance summit in Vilnius, which started today.
Turkey’s bid to join the European Union has been blocked since 1999. Turkey was one of the first new members of the Council of Europe. In 1963, it became an associate member of the EU’s precursor, the European Economic Community. Since 1995, Turkey has had a Customs Union agreement with the EU.
Turkey’s EU bid has been largely unsuccessful, with the nation unable to align itself fully with the EU’s acquis communautaire – the prerequisites for joining the bloc. Out of the 35 chapters needed to complete accession, only 16 had been negotiated and just one concluded.
Turkey's accession to the EU has long been contested and an inflammatory issue in some Member States. Credit: European Parliament, 2020
Critics point to Turkey’s problematic human rights record and growing authoritarian rule as major hurdles. Some EU Member States are openly opposed to Turkish membership, such as Austria, Germany, and France. Turkey is actively involved in the civil war in Syria and in tensions with Greece and Cyprus over the Eastern Mediterranean.
Ascension talks have completely stalled as the European Parliament voted to suspend accession talks in 2019. The political opposition in Turkey has pledged to continue EU accession talks if they come to power.
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Turkey has withheld its final approval of Sweden’s NATO membership, partly in protest over Sweden harbouring of Kurdish militants, which it calls terrorists, and anti-Islam protests, which were sanctioned by Swedish authorities. Turkey has been exercising its NATO veto to attempt to negotiate favourable terms in exchange for Swedish membership.
“Turkey has been waiting at the door of the European Union for over 50 years now and almost all of the NATO member countries are now members of the European Union,” Erdoğan said. “Come and open the way for Turkey’s membership of the European Union. When you have made the way for Turkey, we’ll pave the way for Sweden, as we did for Finland.”
Erdoğan and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson are expected to meet later today in Vilnius ahead of the NATO summit. Kristersson told public broadcaster SVT that he was still hopeful that Sweden would receive the green light from Turkey.
