Euro crisis, the place of Turkey in the future of European Union and possible scenarios: Can 'Flexible integration' be a solution?

Historically the idea of uniform integration, in other words, the integration of all member states at the same time and speed, can be considered as an accepted way to develop the Community in the first years of European integration. However, along with the increasing number of members, deepening and growing integration areas over the years, the European Union (EU) has faced various problems concerning the uniform integration. Particularly, in the process of deepening and widening, member states participation to the EU at different times and under different conditions made it difficult for new members to catch up the speed and harmony of the states that are already members. The cleavage caused by this situation has become more evident in the EU. Particularly, due to the Euro crisis, Brexit, Syrian refugee crisis and increasing nationalist trends. On the other hand, the fact that this crisis atmosphere further deepened the differences between the member states, did not make it possible for the EU to form a uniform policy that fits all member states. In this context, the concept of flexible integration gaining importance in terms of more efficient and effective management of increasing diversity. In this study, it is anticipated that the EU will evolve into a more flexible structure that implements different flexible integration models pragmatically. The aim of this study is to emphasize the need for flexible integration in the future of the EU and to reveal the place of Turkey in the future of the EU. In this direction, the study will first deal with the concept of flexible integration. In the following part, flexible integration will be evaluated as an evolving feature of the EU. Finally, the place of Turkey in the future of the EU will be analysed through scenario analysis in the framework of possible scenarios. The future form and sustainability of Turkey-EU relations are related to the scenarios examined in this study.