Abstract
Throughout its history, the Turkish Republic has been associated with Europe more than any of the other twelve countries. Turkey was one of the first countries to establish relations as a candidate country with EEC, even before the United Kingdom or Spain, which were not the EEC members at the time. In addition, it is the oldest applicant. However, it was the most recent country to be accepted as a candidate country, and it is the only one of the current accession members that was not given an accession date. It has been accounted for by the fact that Turkey does indeed not fulfill the Copenhagen criteria and therefore cannot at this stage be offered a date for starting accession negotiations but the EU has promised to examine again Turkey's candidacy and, in case of fulfillment of the Copenhagen criteria, to give Turkey a clear date and genuine agenda for admission...
