EU parliament votes to halt accession talks with Turkey
The European legislature’s decision to break off Turkey's membership negotiations has no legal bearing, but it does indicate where a line might be drawn in Europe.
The European Parliament voted July 6 to suspend accession negotiations with Turkey. According to Reuters, the legislative body of the European Union debated the report by Turkey rapporteur and fellow parliamentarian Kati Piri and called “on the Commission and the member states … to formally suspend the accession negotiations with Turkey without delay if the constitutional reform package is implemented unchanged.” Turkey’s April 16 constitutional referendum is set to grant President Recep Tayyip Erdogan powers that will make him as powerful as (if not more powerful than) the Turkish parliament.
In response, Turkey’s Minister of EU Affairs Omer Celik criticized the European parliamentarians. He said they had “no right to make such a call” and called upon European lawmakers to “respect the will of the Turkish people.” Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, whose post will be abolished once the constitutional amendments come into effect in 2019, called the EU decision “null and void.”
Turkey has been an associate of the European club since 1963 and formed a customs union with the EU in 1995. Ankara applied for full membership in 1987 and the EU agreed to consider Ankara as a candidate for full membership in 1999. The two sides have been continuing accession negotiations since 2005 over 35 chapters that would harmonize Turkey’s laws, regulations and standards with those of the EU.
At one level, the incident is a tempest in a teapot. The decision is not legally binding — it does not force the European Commission, the civil service organ of the EU, or the European Council, comprised of the heads of EU member states, to halt accession talks with Turkey. At any rate, except for some areas, such as the controversial refugee deal, relations between Brussels and Ankara have been on ice for quite some time. In 2013, Turkey’s then-EU Minister Egemen Bagis expressly said Turkey would likely never become a member. Meanwhile, as much as he pays lip service to Ankara’s EU bid, Erdogan often signals that Turkey could turn its back on the EU and possibly reach out to Russia and China if his country is kept waiting too long on Europe’s doorstep.
