Subcommittee No 8

In 1964, in accordance with the Türkiye- EU Association Council Decision No. 3/64, Türkiye- EU Association Committee has been established to support the activities of the Association Council and to foster the cooperation stemming from partnership relations.

In paralel to the developments in Türkiye- EU relations, on 11 April 2000, eight subcommittees have been established by the Association Council Decision No. 3/2000 which do not have any decision making power. The Subcommittee No. 8 on Customs, Taxation, Drug Trafficking And Money Laundering was one of the subcommittees, set up under the Association Committee to monitor progress with the priorities of the accession partnership and approximation of legislation. The main agenda items under the Subcommittee No. 8 were determined as customs cooperation, taxation, prevention of money laundering, drugs, audit and financial control, asylum, immigration and external borders, judicial cooperation. 

As time passed, Türkiye and the European Commission jointly decided that the subcommittee meetings shall be restructured as on the basis of the opening and closing benchmarks of the negotiation Chapters in order to be more efficient and result- oriented. Within this framework, it was decided that the following Chapters and the developments thereof shall constitute the main agenda items under the Subcommittee No. 8: Chapter 23 - Judiciary and Fundamental Rights, Chapter 24 - Justice, Freedom and Security, Chapter 4 - Free Movement of Capital, Chapter 16 - Taxation and Chapter 32 - Financial Control.

Moreover, taking into the account the experience accumulated over the past years’ subcommittee meetings, a “new approach” has been adopted to enhance the quality and effectiveness of the meetings. The intention of the “new approach” is to devote more time to actually discussing issues in detail during the subcommittee meetings instead of using the time for making long and detailed presentations. During the preparation phase of the meeting, background detailed presentations for each agenda item, providing the latest information, will be shared by the parties. In line with the information acquired from the presentations, each side will be able to ask their questions and comprehensively focus on technical side of the agenda items. According to the new approach, the discussions during the meetings will be more fruitful and the time allocated for each agenda item will be used more efficiently.

On the basis of this new approach, the 19^th meeting of the Subcommittee No. 8 was hosted by the European Commission and held in hybrid format on 26-27 November 2024.