The need to explore an “alternative and realistic basis” for relationships EUROPEAN UNION. – Türkiye instead of continuing the clinically dead process of accession, according to the European Parliament’s draft report on Turkey, which was discussed today in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament in Brussels.

The speaker of the report on Turkey Nacho Sánchez Amor (Socialists, Spain) stressed: “We see that the continuity is being erased at the political level, since President Erdogan was re-elected, and the first statements made by him do not give the prospect that he really wants a rapprochement between the EU and Turkey. He says that he is from the EU. “We are trying to blackmail Turkey over visas, he is blaming opposition journalists, and generally continues his attacks on the LGBTI community.”

“The need for radical change in Turkey”

The Spanish speaker of the report stressed that even before the elections in Turkey, he had stated that the process of Turkey’s accession to the EU could not continue regardless of the outcome of the elections. “In order to continue the accession process in Turkey, there must be radical changes,” Nacho Sánchez Amor said, while, on the contrary, he expressed the opinion that continuing the process without appropriate reforms is “counterproductive.” For this reason, he stressed that an alternative relationship between the EU and Turkey should be considered, but at the same time, he expects the EU to communicate from Turkey that there will be changes that should be manifested in concrete political actions.

For his part, Georg Vlad Nistor (Romania, EPP) stressed that Turkey is an important partner of the EU not only in economic terms, but also an important NATO partner for almost all EU member states. and this is even more important in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He stressed that none of the EU recommendations. Turkey has not been carried out in recent years, on the contrary, the EU systematically receives conflicting messages. He added that a significant percentage of the Turkish population is pro-European and wants rapprochement with the EU, which should be taken into account.

On the Liberal side, Dutch MEP Malik Azmani noted that Erdogan used his victory speech against LGBTQI people, which is unacceptable and contrary to the rule of law. He also noted that disinformation campaigns are underway in Turkey, on the basis of which several Turkish citizens are imprisoned. On the other hand, he added that in matters of security, immigration and trade, the EU cannot part. with Turkey. “Let’s not get bogged down in endless talk of accession and see what we can do with the association agreement and with trade,” he said. In conclusion, he added that E.E. expects from Turkey a clear and unambiguous position towards Russia.

^{Source: APE-MEB}