Enlargement as a Tool of Foreign Policy of the European Union: The Case of Turkey

In this text, the author will examine the concept of enlargement as a part of the foreign policy of the European Union (EU), as the enlargement process is often perceived as an important soft power tool of EU foreign policy towards its close neighborhood. Through it, the EU can exert transformational pressure on the candidate countries, or countries willing to achieve candidate member status of the EU, as we possibly have witnessed while the EU was expanding into Central and Eastern Europe. Yet, this transformational power of the Union has its limits, especially in the case of the credibility of the intention of the EU to accept a candidate country within a certain period of time. The author will try to apply the theory to the case of Turkey in the form of a case study. The Turkish accession process has so far not brought satisfactory outcomes and it seems that the capacity of the EU to influence Turkish internal policies has steadily decreased. The author will thus focus on the timeline of the Turkish enlargement and the key factors affecting the accession process with regards to credibility.