The Monocle Minute

The European Union’s relationship with Turkey is complicated. The country has been a candidate for membership since 1999 but accession talks were frozen in 2019 as a result of its deteriorating human-rights record and souring relations with several of the bloc’s members. Yet Europe relies on Ankara to stem irregular migration and has handed it €6bn for that purpose. Now the relationship seems to be on course for a reboot. That would be a good thing for both Turkey and Europe.

EU leaders gathered last week for a special summit on bolstering the bloc’s economic competitiveness. In the case of Turkey, which is already in a customs union with the EU, that would take the form of a new kind of association focused on security and trade, rather than eventual membership. In a report produced last year, Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, recommended modernising the customs union and allowing the European Investment Bank to restart operations in Turkey. A more transactional relationship would suit the pragmatic style of the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, bringing economic benefits while allowing him to maintain independence in domestic and foreign affairs. For the EU, it would build goodwill that could be used to maintain maritime stability in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean.


Nonetheless, Europe remains cautious. Borrell’s report noted that Ankara must halt its role as a sanctions-busting middleman for Moscow (there are plans for a gas hub in Turkey that would allow Russian energy to keep flowing into Europe). In his letter inviting member states to last week’s summit, Charles Michel, the European Council’s president, noted that any development of the EU’s relationship with Turkey should proceed in a “phased, proportionate and reversible manner”. Europe might not want the nation to become a full member of its club but it doesn’t want it on the outside either. Rebuilding trust is important, as Turkey is and will remain crucial to the EU’s security, as well as an important trading partner. That won’t be easy or quick, however.

Hannah Lucinda Smith is Monocle’s Istanbul correspondent. For more opinion, analysis and insight, subscribe to Monocle today.

Ukrainian firms are reportedly developing drones to enhance the country’s capability to hit oil refineries within Russia. Ukraine is already using the aircraft to attack Russian energy sites but the new models will be able to fly further with heavier payloads. The move comes despite warnings from the US that Ukraine should focus on military targets instead.

Russia is the world’s third-largest producer of oil but is now importing petrol due to recent Ukrainian strikes. The White House has expressed fears that such attacks might cause global petrol prices to rise. Ukrainians, meanwhile, have hailed the latest technological developments while questioning the West’s hesitancy to provide them with long-range weapons. Faced with an existential threat to their state, they are opting to take matters into their own hands.

During the latest Milan Design Week, Singaporean design duo Genevieve Ang and Clement Zheng unveiled their interactive ceramic technology, Reciproco. They presented sculptures that make use of haptic feedback to explore the human side of technological change: place your hand on one of them and another, whether it’s across the room or on the other side of the world, will heat up in response.

“It’s about being able to remotely experience someone else’s warmth,” says Ang, whose eureka moment came while holding a steaming mug of coffee and reading Zheng’s research paper on ceramics with built-in electronic circuits. Ang’s background in clay and creating glazes perfectly complemented Zheng’s know-how; the result is a project that optimistically suggests that well-designed technology can break barriers, rather than reinforce them. We’re keen to see what the duo come up with next.

For more on Reciproco, pick up a copy of Monocle’s dedicated ‘Salone del Mobile Special’ newspaper, which is available on select newsstands across Europe and online.

The North Bennet Street School has been helping to keep American craft alive since the 19th century. Monocle travels to Boston’s historic North End neighbourhood to meet the students stepping away from screens and turning their hands to traditional craftsmanship.

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We speak with Wildsam Magazine editor in chief Taylor Bruce, talk to the founder of Paper Café in Nairobi and visit an exhibition on Japanese music books at Japan House London.