This text is about how Turkey is viewed by the European Union and how the European Union views Turkey; the main aim of the article is however to try and explain in what way one can describe the way in which the European Union tries to effect Turkey by use of hard and/or soft power. I am going to give a historic backdrop to the topic and then discuss the policies in terms of soft and hard power by using Joseph Nyes theories. I am using a single case study method. The goal of this work is to see how the policies of the European union looks in relation to Turkey. The main focus of this article is however to measure in what way the European Union, in regards to Turkey, are using soft or hard power. The question that I have asked in this study is as follows: - Can the policies of the European union as regards Turkey be described by hard or soft power according to the definition by Joseph Nye? I have come to the conclusion that it is difficult to say that the measures, taken as a whole, are either outlets of hard or soft power; the European Union uses both hard and soft power, but the use of soft power as regards Turkey has diminished since 2005.