Turkey's road to EU accession: a bridge too far?

Using composite indices that quantify the quality of institutions and democratic functioning, the paper argues that Turkey has always deviated in terms of liberal democracy and civil liberties from the average EU norms. Due to the democratic backsliding of recent years this gap is rapidly widening. These differences constitute one of the two insurmountable fundamental barriers that have always prevented full membership irrespective of all other impediments. The democratic gap barrier is compounded by the sheer size of the economy and the population. Both present an unprecedented challenge to EU's integration capacity with important political repercussions for the Union's institutional functioning. Full membership was never a reasonably realistic and pragmatic goal. Both the EU and Turkey have benefits to reap from maintaining a strong and close relationship founded on a more pragmatic partnership target.