Can Poland and Turkey Revamp Europe?

Pinar Elman, Roderick Parkes

Carnegie Europe - Thursday, November 7, 2013

On November 8, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will give a speech in the Polish capital, Warsaw. His expected message: the need for Poland and Turkey to forge a common European future. The visit is symbolic of the way these two catch-up countries have grown in stature and confidence, and their relationship could well make a serious dent in European affairs. And yet, a second look shows that Turkish-Polish ties are fraught with risks as well.
But first, the positive case for an upgraded partnership between the two.

Until recently, Ankara was distinctly skeptical of Polish influence in the European Union. Turkish leaders were primarily interested in building up political links with Berlin, London, and Paris, seeing bonds with Poland and other Central European countries mainly in economic terms. As such, Turkish thinking was still stuck in the last decade, when Poland was a transition country whistling to the tune of Western Europe.
That is now beginning to shift. Poland’s political weight in the EU has grown perceptibly in the past five years, and Ankara has watched with enthusiasm a series of lively speeches by Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski in the capitals of “old Europe.” Turkey has welcomed this transition as evidence not just of the European project’s capacity for hardheadedness, but also of a catch-up country’s ability to assert itself.


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