Turkey's long wait to join EU club

Nothing in Stefan Fuele's in-tray is more daunting than Turkey.

The European Union enlargement commissioner's job is to manage the accession of new member states, and Turkey's candidacy dwarfs that of any other country, in both its scale and complexity.
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EU officials point out that the trading relationship with Turkey is still very strong, underpinned by a partial free trade agreement - called a customs union - since 1995, which is widely credited for much of Turkey's recent economic progress.

More than 40% of Turkish exports go to the EU.

They also work closely together on foreign policy - especially the crisis in Syria - energy and terrorism.

What they cannot do at the moment is restart the formal accession negotiations - the 35 chapters of EU law, known as the "acquis" - that Turkey must comply with before it is eligible to become a full member.

Each candidate has to open the chapters, relating to everything from the environment to human rights, change laws and government practice to match EU standards, and then agree with Brussels to close them.

Turkey must comply with all 35 areas of EU law in order to join the club In the seven years since negotiations began, Turkey has opened only 13 chapters, and closed only one, on science and research. No chapters have been opened for two years.

Eighteen chapters have been frozen - eight by the EU, because of Turkey's refusal to allow Cypriot ships to use Turkish ports, and the remaining 10 by the governments of Cyprus and France.
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The writer and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk said recently that the hearts of Turkish Europhiles had been broken by the reluctance to welcome Turkey into the EU club.