Members of the European Parliament on Tuesday adopted a Turkey report, which states that the EU’s top political body cannot envisage resuming accessions talks with Ankara without significant and clear steps from Ankara on EU-related norms.
Turkey has made no improvements on fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of law, according to the report adopted by the Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) by 448 votes in favour, 67 against and 107 abstentions at a plenary session in Strasbourg.
The report pointed to continued deterioration of the human rights situation in Turkey, with MEPs expressing their regret over the ongoing “legal and administrative pressure on civil society and human rights defenders, lawyers and journalists,” the EP said on its official website.
Turkey opened accession talks with the EU in 2005, pledging to strengthen its democracy, guarantee rule of law and match regulations governing the economy with those of the 27-member bloc.
But the political and economic union froze talks on the chapters of Turkey’s accession following a military coup attempt in 2016, when it strayed further from Europe’s democratic standards.
The EP “cannot at this stage justify modifying its position concerning the formal suspension of the accession negotiations with Turkey, which have effectively been at a standstill since 2018,” the body cited MEPs as saying.
Ankara has destroyed any aspirations of reopening the EU accession process at this time, MEPs said, citing Ankara’s defiance of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rulings regarding Turkish philanthropist Osman Kavala.
In April, a Turkish court convicted Kavala, who had been in pre-trial detention since 2017, of attempting to overthrow Erdoğan’s government by financing the Gezi Park protests of 2013. In 2019, the ECHR ordered Kavala’s immediate release citing lack of evidence and a breach to his rights to freedom and fair trial.
MEPs on Tuesday also called on Ankara to handle Finland and Sweden’s NATO membership applications in “good faith, to engage constructively in efforts to solve possible outstanding issues and to refrain from exerting any undue pressure in this process.”
A NATO member since 1952, Turkey has challenged the bids from Sweden and Finland on the grounds that they harbour people linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group and others it deems terrorists, and because they halted arms exports to Turkey in 2019.
“In the current serious circumstances, it is important that all NATO allies act with foresight and swiftly ratify the accession protocols of the two countries,” the MEPs said.
Ahval