Economic Criteria of The European Union and Turkey

There are some criteria to be fulfilled by the countries in the European Union (EU), which some of them are for joining the EU while some of them are for joining the EU economic and monetary union. To join the EU, a candidate Member State must meet three criteria (political, economic and ability to take on the obligations of membership). These are called as Copenhagen economic criteria. Also, after being a member, a counry has to fulfill the four criteria, that are called Maastricht convegence criteria. Main indicators in analyzing Copenhagen economic criteria are the existence of a functioning market economy and the capacity to cope with competitive pressure and market forces within the Union, while Maastrich criteria are composed of major macroeconomic indicators, such as inflation rate, interest rate, exchange rate mechanism- ERM-II, and government financial position (budget deficit and government debt). In this paper, it is aimed to evaluate Turkey economy in respect to these economic criteria.