ABSTRACT
On September 12, 2003, the European Union (EU) and Turkey solemnized the fortieth anniversary of its contractual relationship, which began with the signing of the Ankara Treaty—in force since December 1, 1964. The EU's decision of entering into membership negotiations not only with the candidates of Central and Eastern Europe but also with Cyprus drove Europe to look anew into the decades-long unclear relations with Turkey. According to the model that was developed in 1998 for the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs), the Accession Partnership incorporated short- and medium-term priorities that needed to be addressed in order to fulfill and implement the Criteria of Copenhagen. Pursuant to the request of the European Council of Luxembourg, the Commission annually submitted a Progress Report on the alignment of Turkey with the standards of the EU. The chapter also presents a comparison of the economic parameters of Turkey with the corresponding ones of the four CEECs.
