Call from European Parliament to put “negotiations with Turkey” on hold
The European Parliament is preparing to call for suspension of Turkey’s suspension EU membership negotiations. The justification is that the constitutional amendment accepted by the referendum does not comply with the Copenhagen criteria. The annual report of the annual European Parliament on Turkey (EP) will be discussed at the plenary sessions in Strasbourg today. The unusual part regarding the draft decision-making report prepared by Dutch deputy Kati Piri is that for the first time since accession negotiations began in 2005 an EU institution will call for official suspension of referred negotiations.
According to sources, the draft resolution calls EU states and the European Commission for “immediate and formal suspension of accession negotiations with Turkey” in the event that the package of 16 April constitutional amendment enters into force as it is, with EU states and the European Commission calling for it.
According to the European Parliament, the constitutional amendment package is not compatible with the principle of separation of powers and the Copenhagen criteria, as stated in the Venice Commission opinion reports. The EP had made another call in November 2016 to “freeze” membership negotiations.
The AP argues that instead of accession negotiations, “a sincere and open debate should be started” on common areas of benefit such as combating terrorism, migration, energy, economy and trade where strong cooperation would be possible. However it is required that such cooperation is based on the rule of “respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms” in all areas to include the updating of the customs union.
The EP is in also favor of revaluating pre-accession funds extended to Turkey before accession to EU. If the membership negotiations are suspended, EU would like these funds to be also suspended in which case concerned funds would be directly used for civil society and asylum seekers in Turkey.
