How the Turkey - European Union negotiations on accession affect the Republic of Moldova European aspiration

         

            Turkey is a special or a specific neighbor of the European Union. It expressed its European aspiration long time ego. It applied for the association as a member of the EEC (predecessor of the EU) in 1959 and became an associate member in 1963. After decades of political negotiations, Turkey applied for full membership of the EEC in 1987, became an associate member of the Western EU in 1992, reaching the customs union agreement with the EU in 1995 and has officially begun formal accession negotiations with the EU since 30 October 2005. The accession process will likely take several decades because of political and cultural disagreements persisting between the EU and Turkey.

            The „bad” example of Turkey is often used by anti European and pro Russian (pro Customs Union of the future Eurasian Union) countries from the Eastern Partnership program (of the European Neighborhood Policy), such as Ukraine and Republic of Moldova. The argument of the anti European political forces is that although Turkey has for a long time the status of associate member, there is no a clear perspective of its accession into EU. Instead, the accession into the Customs Union is simple and the benefits of accession will consist in low prices at marsh gas and the access at a big market. 

    

            The European Union authorities could explain the differences between Turkey and countries from the Eastern Partnership program, which would help the people from countries from the mentioned space to understand their perspectives relative to accession within the European Union and would help the pro European political parties to promote the European vector in elections.