EU Membership Looking Less Attractive for Turkey

For anyone that doesn't know -- in other words anyone who has been buried under a stone for the last 2 weeks -- the European Union is currently suffering an explosion of bad publicity because of the mammoth budget deficits racked up by several of its members. It all started with Greece, which was already fighting a big deficit before the downturn, but the problems in Greece highlighted the massive deficits racked up by Spain, Portugal, Ireland and the UK in fighting off the worst of the crisis.

All this makes joining the European Union a far less enticing prospect for the likes of Turkey, which, having seen a financial crisis in 2001 has weathered the recent storm comparatively well in terms of fiscal stability.

Meanwhile, Turkey continues to increase its sphere of influence and friendship around the world; this week alone Turkish ministers have met with leaders from Bahrai to strengthen trade ties, and Tanzania for the same reason -- Tanzanian President says Turkey is Voice of Africa in G20. This is all helping to make EU membership less and less important to Turkey's economic aspirations.

EU membership is still important though, says Julian Walker, director of UK based Turkish realtor Spot Blue, he said:

"You simply can't ignore the benefits EU membership would have in terms of increasing tourism and property values. Going into the EU would very quickly make Turkish property comparable in price to its EU neighbours, making Turkish property investments very profitable. As for the potential downsides; EU or no EU, the deficit and fiscal problems in Spain, Greece and the UK are not the fault of the EU, which does not exercise anywhere near control over the fiscal policies of the countries in question."

Spot Blue is currently marketing property in Turkey from as little as £25,000.

Like this post? Subscribe to our feed by RSS or Email, join our newsletter(s) or leave a comment using the form below.