Turkey hopes 2020 will mark progress on EU accession bid

Turkey sees a glimmer of hope in reviving its stalled accession process to the European Union in 2020 in the context of the new leadership taking the helm of key European institutions and with expectations of the accelerated reform process by the government.

"With the new commission and the new parliament, we hope that in 2020, if we can accelerate the reform path in Turkey, we can build confidence," Deputy Foreign Minister Faruk Kaymakcı told a small group of reporters late Dec 19. He underlined that restoring confidence between Turkey and the EU would pave the way for addressing some obstacles to Turkey's accession process in 2020.

German politician and former Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen took office as president of the European Commission on Dec. 1, and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was one of the first leaders she contacted on her first day in office. The government has evaluated this gesture and the dispatch of a senior delegation to Ankara as an indication that the new commission wishes to stay in dialogue and to engage with Turkey, despite problems in the accession process.

"There is a will from both sides. The will has always been on our side. But now, we see that the new commission is also willing to engage with Turkey," he stressed.

The EU has stalled the accession process due to the deteriorated democratic and human rights conditions in Turkey in the aftermath of the July 15 failed coup. It also stopped a process for upgrading the customs union.

The ongoing strain in the eastern Mediterranean over the hydrocarbon activities, Turkey's unilateral operation into northeastern Syria and the decades-old Cyprus problem constitute other major problems in the Ankara-Brussels dialogue.

The experienced...