TURKEY READY TO JOIN EUROPEAN ENERGY CLUB

By Marie-Martine Buckens
Wednesday 26 March 2014, Europolitics No. 4837

The resumption of peace talks in Cyprus provides an opportunity to open EU-Turkey energy negotiations

The president of the Economic Development Foundation, Omer Cihad Vardan, has said that the resumption of talks between the Turkish and Greek communities in Cyprus represents an opportunity for the EU to open the energy chapter (15) of negotiations on Turkey’s accession to the EU - a priority chapter for Ankara. Vardan, who is in charge of informing the Turkish business world on the development of EU-Turkey relations, will speak, on 24 March, at the opening of the second International Energy and Environment Conference, which will take place from 24 to 26 April in Istanbul.

Due to the construction on Turkish territory of the TANAP gas pipeline, which by 2019 will allow the supply of Azeri gas to Italy, Turkey now represents a major new player in the supply of gas to the EU from external sources - to which the EU is increasingly open. The discovery of gas in Cypriot and Israeli territorial waters will potentially allow Turkey to play an even more important role, if some of this gas is ultimately piped to Europe via Turkish territory.

Regarding Turkey’s will to conform to EU rules on the liberalisation of the energy market, Vardan has clarified that measures will be taken in order to reduce the participation of the Turkish hydrocarbon company BOTAS in the supply of gas on the Turkish market in order to conform to rules under the EU’s third energy package. Similar measures will be taken in order to reduce the state’s share – currently 40% - in electricity production, he added.

Vardan’s statements echo those of the UK’s Minister for Europe, David Lidington, who, speaking on 28 February in the margins of an energy conference in Ankara, told the Turkish agency Anadolu that he wanted to open Chapter 15 as soon as possible. “You cannot speak of energy in Europe without mentioning Turkey,” he said, adding that Turkey had made good progress in order to meet EU energy standards. Accession negotiations, blocked for three years due to the Cypriot question, and the opposition of the former French President Nicolas Sarkozy, resumed on 5 November 2013, with the opening of a new chapter on regional policy. Negotiations have begun on 14 out of the 35 chapters required for the accession process.