Turkish EU Accession Process Could be Accelerated

We have all seen Turkey's increasing relationship with its Eastern neighbours in the Arab and Muslim world lately, with increasing bilateral agreements, including visa-free travel with many including, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

Well, the European Union has recently discussed whether or not this is their fault for pushing Turkey away by keeping its EU accession process on a slow burn, and whether or not this policy track should be continued.

Last week Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini stated that there is a need to "reflect" on the errors made by Europe in relation to Turkey. One of them is the "pushing the Turks away towards the East instead of trying to attract them towards us," Frattini said in an interview with the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

If this had been one of Turkey's hidden intentions for going deeper into relations with the east, then you would need to say Kudos to Erdogan (it's got a nice ring to it actually). However, I don't actually think this has been the case; rather I think it is the EU's guilty conscience that is at play here.

For the east is not the only part of the world that Turkey has been increasing its relations; it has also increased trade relations with several Latin American countries, with Russia, and also many Asian countries as well. The fact that the EU focussed on the increasing Arab ties smacks of paranoia.

However, the reasoning is not the most important thing here according to Julian Walker, director of Turkish property agent Spot Blue, he said:

"All the other aspects aside here, if it speeds up Turkey's EU accession then it will ultimately be a good thing. The sources close to the story said that those who wish to speed up the process could well be in the majority, and so the process may well be accelerated, which would boost the already strong Turkish economy by increasing tourism and exports, as well as boosting foreign property sales."

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

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