Privileged partnership (Turkish: İmtiyazlı ortaklık) is the term coined by the German conservative party CDU for their model of the future relation between Turkey and the European Union, which falls short of full membership. In February 2004, Angela Merkel, then opposition leader, now chancellor of Germany, visited Turkey to present the idea, which was vehemently rejected by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Turkish government.
The idea is now supported by former French president and head of the Convention on the Future of Europe Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, former French president Nicolas Sarkozy.
The term is also used in context with other countries, like when the Spanish foreign minister Miguel Ángel Moratinos spoke out for a "privileged partnership, offering all the benefits of EU membership, without participation in the institutions" for Israel.
Turkey has utterly rejected the idea of a privileged partnership and finds that the EU must fulfill its obligation to the Turkish nation.
The details of what a privileged partnership relationship would entail have not been clearly defined. Usually, it's implied that it would involve mostly freedom in trade between the EU and Turkey. There are arguments that it could as well be a new kind of capitulation.
Famous quotes containing the words privileged and/or partnership:
“The statements of science are hearsay, reports from a world outside the world we know. What the poet tells us has long been known to us all, and forgotten. His knowledge is of our world, the world we are both doomed and privileged to live in, and it is a knowledge of ourselves, of the human condition, the human predicament.”
—John Hall Wheelock (1886–1978)
“Nevertheless, no school can work well for children if parents and teachers do not act in partnership on behalf of the children’s best interests. Parents have every right to understand what is happening to their children at school, and teachers have the responsibility to share that information without prejudicial judgment.... Such communication, which can only be in a child’s interest, is not possible without mutual trust between parent and teacher.”
—Dorothy H. Cohen (20th century)