Turkey and the European Union: A Review of Turkey's Readmission Agreement

Abstract

Our aim in this article is to analyze Turkey's Readmission Agreement with the EU in light of Turkey's membership goal. More specifically, our aim is to propose the most rational political decision for concluding this process. Our study addresses three questions: (1) the impact of the Readmission Agreement on Turkey's accession negotiations; (2) the outcomes of the implementation of the Readmission Agreement for Turkey; and (3) Turkey's aim of becoming a full member of the EU by concluding the Agreement. By assessing the three potential scenarios of the Readmission Agreement process-minimum, optimum, and maximum benefit-we conclude that, whereas the first scenario does not coincide with our analysis, the other two, especially the third scenario, do coincide with it. Because the optimum benefit scenario does not disrupt the Readmission Agreement process it appears to be the most rational, balanced and beneficial agreement for both Turkey and the EU.