Turkish membership to the European Union generates significant debate among politicians, policy-makers, and academicians. At the same time, the issue of Turkish membership carries challenges for European Union policy-making as well as for theories of integration. This volume comes at a timely interval when there is a need to better understand the Turkish accession to the European Union. The purpose of this volume is twofold. First, it seeks to examine the political background of the European Union-Turkey enlargement negotiation process, and second, it aims at assessing the current strengths and weaknesses of the Turkish candidature. By analyzing the obstacles in front of Turkish negotiations, it aims to uncover the road in front of Turkey's European Union membership. The volume focuses on political, social, and economic issues relevant to the accession process and assesses the transformation at these different levels in line with the negotiations.

'In a period marked by nationalism and populism, the relevance of the roles played by parliaments is sometimes underestimated and rather deserves greater attention. The book edited by Raube, Wouters and Muftuler-Bac gathers a group of leading scholars in the field of parliamentary studies and contributes to bridge a gap in a very sensitive policy field, that is to say the external relations of the European Union. A wide list of approaches and theoretical and empirical investigations demonstrates that, despite the dominant influence of the executive branches of government, not only networking of parliaments has enlarged, but also traditional and innovative roles, i.e. control and conflict mediation, have been amplifled and diversified. Therefore, parliaments are far from being put aside.' - Daniela Irrera, EuropeNow This insightful companion examines the role of parliaments in the external relations of the EU, a relatively under-explored topic of research in an increasingly complex international relations environment. In fact, this volume challenges the dominant perspective, demonstrating the increased networking of parliaments both within the EU and with external actors, shedding light on the growing role of parliamentary scrutiny, control and conflict mediation. Providing a comparative overview of parliamentary action in EU external relations, this book considers both the conceptual basis of these actions and examines key case studies for empirical analysis. It situates the EU's internal and external dimension of parliamentary cooperation in a wider context, engaging in a debate that goes beyond the EU into relationships with neighbouring regions as well as parliamentary institutions from other areas of the globe. Advanced students and researchers of EU external relations and global governance will greatly benefit from reading this timely book. At the same time, international relations and political science scholars will also appreciate this thorough and comprehensive volume. Contributors include: M.A. Afke Groen, M.A.H.K. Belley, K. Biedenkopf, T. Christiansen, A. Cianciara, I. Cooper, R. Cutler, M.A.F. De Vrieze, S. Delputte, I. Demirsu, M.A.D. Fonck, J.E. Fossum, D. Fromage, M. Gianniou, M. Gora, M.A.C. Glahn, S. Gurkan, D. Jan i , T. Lenz, C. Lord, M. Muftuler-Bac, G.G. Muller, X. Nuttin, L. Oehman, D. Peters, M.A.I. Petrova, K. Raube, L. Redei, G. Rosen, Z. Selden, M.A. Shaohua Yan, S. Stavridis, A. von Lingen, W. Wagner, J. Wodka, J. Wouters

Should Turkey become a part of the European Union? This heated debate has been going on for many years now, always under the assumption that it is the membership candidate alone who needs to adjust to the EU's influence. The book's main argument is precisely that the Turkish accession needs to be analyzed not only by looking at the EU's impact on Turkish transformation but also from an angle that captures the Turkish role in recasting Europe. In order to assess the EU-Turkish relations, the book first analyzes the very process of the European integration. Based on these findings, Turkey's relations with the EU are addressed from the specific angle of the changing dynamics in Europe. Second, the book investigates the socio-political transformation in Turkey through the prism of its relations with the EU. The EU has become an actor on its own right in Turkish politics impacting its domestic policies as well as foreign policy formulations. The author investigates the political transformation in Turkey through the political conditionality of the EU. Through this investigation, a more precise understanding of the EU's impact on constituting democracy in candidates and in its periphery will be generated. Consequently, the author aims to assess the limits of political integration and its conditionality on countries in the EU's periphery such as Turkey; that is because the positive implications of European integration are almost taken for granted in the theoretical literature without much emphasis on the limits of integration. From the Contents: * A historical Evolution of Turkey's relations with the European Union * Turkey and the Negotiation of European Identity * Turkey and the Future of Europe