COMMON FOREIGN AND SECURITY POLICY INTEGRATION PROCESS THROUGH THE LENS OF SERBIA AND TURKEY NEGOTIATION

STEKIĆ Nenad (Nenad Stekić, MA Candidate, University of Belgrade, Faculty of Security Studies), nenad.stekic@fb.bg.ac.rs
AKÇAY Ekrem Yaşar (Ekrem Yaşar Akçay, PhD, Assist. Prof. Hakkari University, Turkey. Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences), ey_akcay@hotmail.com

The Common Security and Defence Policy of the European Union (EU CSDP) integration is the unique type of defence integration at the supranational level. As a major part of the Common Foreign and Security Policy (EU CFSP), the range of the EU CSDP is not strictly limited to its member states, but is open to the candidate countries as well. This paper aims to inspect to what extent the general integration process with the European Union correlates with the CFSP/CSDP one. The integration process will be inspected through two main variables: alignment record with the EU`s CSFP/CSDP decisions and the participation in the EU CSDP missions and operations, as the most notable and visible element of the CSDP. For the study cases, Turkey and Serbia as candidate countries have been chosen. Authors have used the European Commission`s annual Progress Reports for the two countries for the last 10 years (2016 inclusive), in order to determine the quality and level of integration in the EU CFSP/CSDP field. The results indicate that even though Serbia has gone further in the general EU accession process and acquis communautaire harmonization, Turkey is more integrated into the EU CSDP elements.

Keywords: EU, CFSP, CSDP, defence, integration, Turkey, Serbia, Progress Report