Abstract
The European Union is preparing for an enlargement phenomenon. After having successfully grown from six to 25 members, the European Union is now marching ahead. However, there are some countries which, because of their history of their geographical, economic and political situation, cannot easily adhere to the EU. Turkey is a case in point. The accession of Turkey, which was requested since 1987, was rejected by an evasive answer of the commission at the end of 1989. In the summit meeting of Luxembourg, in December 1997, the member nations unanimously agreed on the fact that they could not take in Turkey as a part of the "European Club?. This was defended by Germany and the whole of the democratic Christian governments. However, in 1999, the European Commission decided to grant to Turkey the statute applicant country. The question that is raised immediately after this move is whether the same strategy is applied to the EU's relations with countries on the southern shore of the Mediterranean? Questions like these open up the whole debate about what it means to be European, what is the ultimate purpose of European integration and what are the EU's interests in the world at large. It is time to redefine and reinforce the EU's preferential agreements with its neighbors, and to do so in the most wide-ranging terms as possible. After a short presentation of Turkey and conditions required for European Union membership, we will examine why Turkey was selected to be a part of the list of the countries retained for widening and discuss the handicaps which Turkey suffers from as a candidate for the selection to the EU.
