With or without Turkey? The many determinants of the official German position on Turkey’s EU accession process

Abstract

Germany and Turkey are unique partners which are tied to each other by means of a complex interdependence in economic, political and societal spheres. This spans from trade and direct investment partnership and regular collaboration under the umbrella of many international organizations and alliances such as the Group of Twenty (G20), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the anti-IS coalition to efforts to eliminate shared concerns related to cross-border terrorism and the multidimensional consequences of the refugee crisis as well as joint actions within the framework of the EU’s various military and civilian missions. Official German position on Turkish membership in the European Union (EU) and its prolonged accession process constitutes an important aspect of GermanTurkish relations, as well, and nurtures the already complex state of bilateral dialogue between both countries, as each dimension serves as a setting for the exchange of diverging and converging German and Turkish preferences and interests. Germany’s official standing on Turkey’s EU accession process has been of key importance for both Turkey and the member states of the EU as a result of the institutional engineering of the EU’s enlargement politics.