Integration without membership? The legal legitimacy of Turkish EU accession and alternatives to full membership

With the beginning of negotiations, Turkey has, from the legal perspective according Article 49 EUV, the right to join the EU, but the EU does not have the obligation to take Turkey in. The European Council's Turkey resolution at its December 2004 Summit foresees a guarantee clause: If accession of Turkey is not accomplished, yet both sides still have an interest in deeper cooperation and integration, then "it must be ensured that the candidate state concerned is fully anchored in the European structures through the strongest possible bond". The key question is which model would then work best for Turkey: supranational integration (accession) or governmental cooperation (Privileged Partnership, Extended Associated Membership, European Economic Area Plus). The model of Gradual integration shows a new, a third way of integration. This model proposes a new dynamic method of intergovernmental. integration including decision-making rights for Turkey, from which a new sui generis form of membership could result.