Will Turkey become a member of the EU? Here's what you need to know.

As part of his surprising turnaround that unblocked Sweden's bid for NATO membership on Monday night, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appears to have extracted vague commitments from "revitalize" his country's complicated politics. relationship with the European Union.

At a meeting on Monday, Erdogan and Charles Michel, the President of the European Council, agreed to focus on migration and refugees, economic ties and the prospect of opening up visa-free travel to the EU. for the Turks, a senior E.U. official said the official. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to brief reporters, described the meeting as a shift to a more positive tone.

Turkey is officially candidate for membership of the European Union, a status it has held for two decades. The process was all but frozen in 2018, cementing a kind of frenemy status between the bloc and its neighbor to the east. The two are deeply bonded, but the relationship between them has been strained.

Most of the United States. countries consider Turkey's EU. that the membership bid is dead - but they have not insisted on making it official, fearing it will further alienate Mr Erdogan and make improvements in key policy areas such as energy cooperation and migration more difficult . Here is an overview of the history of the Turkish EU. application and where it currently stands.

Turkey applied to become a member of the European Union so smaller in 1987; it gained candidate status in 1999 and began negotiations to join in 2005. Talks for E.U. membership are normally lengthy, averaging around 10 years. In the case of Turkey, they have officially lasted for 18 years, although they have been practically suspended for five of them.

The negotiations are organized into chapters — or policy areas - in which the candidate country is trying to meet EU laws and standards, usually through sweeping revisions.

Accession talks are based on a set of principles, known as the Copenhagen political criteria, such as respect for human rights, well-being, democracy and functioning institutions, and the rule of law guaranteed by free and independent. These are considered the cornerstones of club membership.

The E.U. suspended accession talks with Turkey in 2018, citing the country's lack of progress on human rights and the rule of law. It came after Mr Erdogan's leadership took an even more authoritarian turn in response to a failed coup attempt in 2016, which saw thousands of civil servants fired and hundreds of organizations shut down. bid be resurrected?

E.U. Diplomats believe that Turkey has very little chance of joining the EU. anytime soon, if ever, saying the country's standards for the rule of law and respect for human rights have deteriorated in recent years.

Another major problem is Turkey's hostile relations with its neighbors Greece and Cyprus, both E.U. members. While both countries are members of NATO, Turkish officials, including Mr. Erdogan himself, frequently question their shared borders and argue that Turkey is entitled to more territory, much to Greece's chagrin.

Turkey also maintains control and troops in the northern part of the island of Cyprus - which it invaded in 1974, saying it was intervening to protect a Turkish-speaking minority. The international community does not recognize its administration there, and Turkey does not recognize the Republic of Cyprus, an EU. and a member of the United Nations which governs the southern two-thirds of the island.

Efforts to resolve the Cyprus question, one of the most...