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The forthcoming Customs Union (CU) upgrade negotiations have the potential to stabilize and deepen the ties between the European Union (EU) and Turkey and bring them to a stronger form of external differentiated integration. This article examines the viability of an EU–Turkey Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA), similar to that between Ukraine and the EU, as an alternative to the CU. The paper contends that a DCFTA would benefit both the EU and Turkey while it would de facto shift the contractual relations from accession conditionality to market access conditionality with potential political repercussions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses results of empirical research focused on the barriers to cooperation of Western Balkan countries and Turkey (WBC&T) in EU Framework Programmes (EU FP).1It reveals that WBC&T and member states of EU share a very similar pattern of barriers dominated by ‘Project managing weaknesses’ and ‘Bureaucratic barriers of the European Commission’. However, same barriers present much greater difficulties to researchers from WBC&T due to low intensity in international research cooperation, weak mobility and specific socio-political factors like political instability and scientific inferiority. The weak participation of WBC&T in FP is an obstacle not only to integration of WBC&T into the ERA but also slows down overall cohesion process that is nowadays dependent on human capital and innovation capacities supported by research. Therefore, the balance between social cohesion policy and scientific-merit research policy should be put in place. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper is aimed at introducing the inter-war dimension to the debate on the history of Turkey's association with the idea of European integration. This association evolved in the context of two inter-war initiatives: Aristide Briand's European Union proposal within the framework of the League of Nations and Richard Coudehove-Kalergi's Pan-Europe idea. Although Turkey had been originally excluded from both, the inter-war great power rivalries in Europe rectified the situation, allowing Turkey's incorporation into both schemes. In the process, the Turkish leaders and public could relate to Briand's intergovernmental initiative far more easily than to Coudenhove-Kalergi's Pan-Europe ideal. This might be considered a manifestation of traditional Turkish emphasis on institutional, rather than ideational, aspect of European integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]