ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the Justice and Development Party and assesses whether the Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi (AKP) has given up on Turkey's European Union (EU) membership goal since the beginning of negotiations in 2005. The AKP has realised that passing high-stake reforms in an environment like this could be a threat to its own existence and domestic sources of political power. Turkey has been a candidate for EU membership since 1999 and has been negotiating with the EU since 2005. The AKP's basic long-term EU commitment has not changed fundamentally, but it has been affected and constrained by the dynamics and nature of negotiations with the EU, and changes in domestic and European politics. A number of institutional changes were enacted around the Secretariat General for EU Affairs – Turkey's main coordination body for EU affairs - with the idea of empowering the EU reform process.
