Turkey and the EU: A play in search of a script

This Commentary warns that by continuing to act as if Turkey’s membership of the EU was still a credible prospect, the EU is dodging the critical issue of how to establish friendly and constructive relations with an independent, self-confident Turkey. More importantly, this approach prevents the EU from at last accepting that enlargement is not the only – nor necessarily the best – policy option available to deal effectively with a strategically important country on its borders.
The author, Riccardo Perissich, is Executive Vice-President of the Council for the United States and Italy and former Director General for the Internal Market and Industry in the European Commission. This series of Commentaries are contributed by members of EuropEos, a multidisciplinary group of jurists, economists, political scientists and journalists set up in 2002 with the aim of creating an ongoing forum for the discussion of European policy and institutional issues.