While attending to official business in Europe's administrative nerve center, he gave, of course, a limited number of public and guest list-only speeches. On one of these occasions, he used more than half of his allocated time to talk about the conflict in Gaza. I consider this as being a remarkable event in two ways.
First, he was showing a mirror to the EU when it comes to evaluating its own common foreign and security polices as well as external relations in general. Second, he was presenting to Brussels a modern 21st century Turkey which takes up sharing full responsibility for solving global conflicts (further underlined by its recent election to become a nonpermanent member of the UN Security Council).
The EU's policies are often visualized as three pillars. One stands for economic integration, another one represents common foreign and security policies and the last one symbolizes home affairs and justice. While not all issues clearly fall under each of these three pillars, it somehow explains both the concept as well as the dilemmas of the present-day European Union.
By measuring the size, or rather the volume, of political clout and economic might, we can detect differing levels of status and power within the EU. It is fair to say that France's political influence will always outweigh that of Slovenia, while the United Kingdom's economic strategies (in good and bad times -- as well as terms) most likely always outshine and outperform those of let's say, Portugal. Enter Turkey, and the whole ballgame changes significantly. Here's why:
In pillar number one, Turkey will become a leading actor due to its potential for growth both linked to capacity as well as consumer demand. The strategy should become a role model for other struggling European economies: while cheap means the Far East, affordable and high-quality means Turkey. The manufacturing industry all over Europe needs energy and a lot of it; again, Turkey has substantial reserves. Talk about a strategic location -- pipelines or none! Pillar number two is a logical area of increased activity for both the EU and Turkey. As a country enjoying working relationships in both the East and West, Turkey cannot only bridge the gap between the EU and its neighbors, but at the same time should start playing a leading role in establishing new contacts on behalf of the EU. You cannot be friends with everyone, but diplomacy is based on talking with all sides instead of going to war straight away. Pillar number three is a key element in combating terror and more importantly, trying to prevent it. The talk in certain EU quarters always includes complaints about the fact that the moment Turkey becomes a full member of the EU, these three pillars will collapse -- I rather argue that the opposite scenario will happen.
The fact that Erdoğan spoke about an international conflict while everyone else was expecting him to detail Turkey's compliance with certain chapters of the acquis communautaire shows that Turkey is ready to become a full member in its truest sense. The EU must start to look outward instead of becoming a selfish and inward-looking club. Which future member state is better prepared for this task than Turkey?
I hope that Turkey's first full-time EU negotiator, Egemen Bağış, presses the button which has "high-speed EU accession" written on it. I further hope that the Turkish prime minister himself will now pay an annual visit to Brussels. His negotiating team must know each and every detail of the accession process as well as the contents of all 35 acquis chapters -- two of them are currently "empty," hence only 33 are on the table. The prime minister made clear that as a statesman, he has to take the wider picture into account. The EU is not isolated from the outside world, and neither is the Republic of Turkey.
One issue that again will dominate the accession process, although it clearly should not, is Cyprus. Erdoğan has made clear that the ball is not only in Ankara's court but also in the EU's, as ultimately they made the grave mistake of allowing a non-unified Cyprus to join the EU. Some EU representatives have hesitantly accepted that they, indeed, made a mistake. But now is the time to move on. If Turkey shows more reassuring progress with regards to implementing EU reforms, the EU in return may give more leeway to Ankara when it comes to negotiating the best solution for the citizens on both parts of the divided island. Frequent "business trips" by the Turkish prime minister to Brussels and beyond may be the perfect tool to achieve just that.
