Besedila EU

EU-Turkey Association Agreement (the "Ankara Agreement")

An "Agreement creating an association between the European Economic Community and Turkey" was signed in Ankara on 12 September 1963 and entered into force on 1 December 1964.

The EU-Turkey Association Agreement aimed to promote a continuous and balanced strengthening of trade and economic relations between the Parties and to establish progressively a customs union. The treaty comprises 3 stages:
  1. a preparatory stage (+/-5 years);
  2. a transitional stage involving the establishment of a customs union (12 years); and
  3. a final stage.

When it was first signed, the treaty constituted a response to Turkey's application to join the European Economic Community in 1959; the Association Agreement represented an interim step towards accession.

Article 27 of the Agreement described contacts between the European Parliament and the Turkish Parliament.

An Additional Protocol to the Agreement was signed by both parties signed in Brussels on 23 November 1970.

Customs Union between the EU and Turkey

The final phase of the relations between the EC and Turkey under the Ankara Association Agreement 1963 was to achieve the EC-Turkey Customs Union.

This final phase entered into force on 1 July 1996. It was established through a decision of 22 December 1995 issued by the EC-Turkey Association Council, a body established by the Ankara Agreement more than three decades previously.

On 28 March 2001, a Decision of the EC-Turkey Customs Co-operation Committee (the "Decision No 1/2001" called "bridging-legislation") established implementing customs provisions of Decision No 1/95, applicable to trade in goods between the two parts of the customs union and with third countries.

The scope of this customs union, based on the status of goods in free circulation, is limited to products other than agricultural products, as defined in Annex I of the Amsterdam Treaty, and coal and steel products, which are subject only to preferential agreements based on their originating status.

Industrial products originating in Turkey, including processed agricultural products and coal and steel products, benefit from the pan-European system of cumulation of origin. That is not the case for agricultural products.