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This special issue delves into the complex challenges confronting the EU and its member states, offering a meticulous examination of Europe's future. Focusing on security policies, regional relations, energy strategies, digital transformation, and the societal impacts of populism, particularly in the realms of social policies and gender equality, it explores potential future scenarios for the integration project. The motivation behind this issue is twofold. Firstly, despite Türkiye’s pivotal role in the EU's strategic future, its direct involvement in discussions about Europe's prospects has been notably absent. This oversight ignores Türkiye’s unique position as a crucial actor in the EU's future, regardless of its potential accession. Secondly, the interest in the EU and Europe within Turkish academia extends beyond the accession process and EU-Türkiye relations. European Studies, as an interdisciplinary field, has gained momentum, reflecting Türkiye’s long-standing engagement with the study of the West's social and political aspects. This special issue aims to provide perspectives from Türkiye on themes crucial to Europe's unfolding future, envisioning a cooperative landscape that addresses critical challenges, with Türkiye as an integral part.

Since the aftermath of World War II, the pursuit of European autonomy in ensuring its security began with the 1950s French proposal for a pan-European defense force, though never realized. The Lisbon Treaty facilitated Union representation as a legal entity and introduced Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) to deepen defense ties. Geopolitical ambitions increased with von Der Leyen's 2019 call for a Geopolitical Commission, preceding the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Global geopolitical shifts amplify the need for a robust European role. However, EU's historical struggle in forging a strong security policy fuels skepticism. This study assesses the EU's foreign policy in the Mediterranean and Black Sea amidst regional turmoil, employing a neo-classical realist lens and a global perspective.

This paper analyses de-legitimisation and Eurosceptic attitudes in Turkey as reflected in newspapers during the COVID-19 pandemic between 15 March 2020 and 30 May 2021. Easton’s (1975) specific support about concrete policy outcomes and Scharpf’s (1998) output-oriented legitimisation theories are utilised in testing the hypothesis on de-legitimisation of EU-rope in both pro and against government media in relation to EU-rope’s policies towards the “fight” against COVID-19 since Euroscepticism influences the political discourse in general regardless of political or ideological position. In the paper, EU-rope is used, instead of European Union (EU) and Europe as two different terminologies, since the analysed newspapers utilise EU and Europe interchangeably. Five newspapers are included in the analysis for this study: Hürriyet, Sabah, Karar, Gazete Pencere and BirGün based on their political and ideological stances. In the research, online archives of the newspapers are utilised, and in each newspaper the op-eds are excluded from the analysis. The main focus is given to the news – headlines on Europe and the EU. Keywords that are looked for in newspapers are EU, Europe, vaccine, BioNTech, Sinovac, Coronavirus, COVID-19, and the pandemic. It has been observed that, regardless of political ideologies and the position of newspaper at the left-right political spectrum, Euroscepticism became a common attitude.

The EU’s role to assist Turkey in its democratization efforts has been debated during Turkey’s candidacy. However, in the second decade of the 21st century, this role of the EU lost its visibility while Turkey seemed to lose its interest in reform movements. This paper, inspired by Pevehouse, defines the EU as a supplier of democratization mechanisms and Turkey as an actor in need. Although lack of enthusiasm and disengagement have come to characterize Turkey-EU relations, this study aims to demonstrate that there are differences between the governing and the opposition actors’ views on the EU and its role in the democratization of Turkey. Data collected from the speeches of opposition parties’ parliamentarians between 1 January 2011 and 31 August 2016 demonstrates the similarities observed in these parties’ concerns regarding democratic practices and the perception of the EU as an actor strengthening democracy, while indicating that the EU, as a supplier, overlooked their concerns during the process.

It has become almost axiomatic to argue that the prospect of Turkish accession to the European Union (EU) poses unprecedented challenges to its cohesion, its institutional structure, and to its identity.1 No country has waited longer to open negotiations with the EU, and no country has embarked on negotiations with such a distant prospect for those negotiations being concluded. Our purpose here is not to consider the wide range of problems faced by Turkey in these negotiations, or even to make a judgement on whether these negotiations will, or ought to be, successful. Our objective is to consider public opinion in the EU, and in Turkey with a view to isolating perceptions on both sides that may be complicating factors in an already intricate relationship.