What Potential for Cooperation between the EU and Turkey on Diversification of Gas Supply?

The EU and Turkey are engaged in a long-standing process of negotiation over membership, facing many stumbling blocks and no prospects of successful conclusion in the near future. At the same time, the EU and Turkey have increasingly high energy ambitions, which open the door for potential cooperation in a number of energy areas. The main areas of such cooperation are the diversification of gas supply and transit through the Southern Corridor, and the convergence of regulatory frameworks and markets. While Turkey and the EU have so far have not been able to harness a strong relationship in these fields, their energy cooperation covers a wide range of increasingly complex and sensitive issues which go beyond the gas sector.

Paper produced within the framework of the IAI-Edison project "The Changing Regional Role of Turkey and Cooperation with the EU in the Neighbourhood", May 2015. Revised version of a paper presented at the seminar on “EU-Turkey Energy Cooperation in the Neighbourhood”, Rome, 16 September 2014.