BRUSSELS, Belgium— On April 26, a leading Member of the European Parliament (MEP) responsible for dealing with Ankara said that the European Union (EU) should formally suspend talks on Turkey’s membership if the country adopts the constitutional changes passed in the April 16 referendum, reported Reuters.
MEP Kati Piri stated that President Recap Tayyip Erdogan’s tightening of his grip on power would strongly hinder Turkey’s chances of joining the EU.
On April 25, after EU’s executive top official for membership talks asked Europe’s foreign ministries to consider other types of relations with Turkey, President Erdogan stated that he would not wait long to join the EU.
Ties between the EU states and the NATO allies have taken a negative turn since the coup in Turkey last July, especially due to Erdogan’s mass arrests and incarcerations that have followed.
“As Turkey with such a constitution cannot become a member of the EU, it also doesn’t make sense to continue the discussion on integration with the current government,” said the Dutch center-left European lawmaker Piri. Piri added that any suspension should come when the “authoritarian constitution” is implemented, which would happen following Turkey’s next elections, slated for 2019.
However, Piri did prefer to suspend talks rather than completely ending talks, because she did not want to take away that possibility from the Turkish people.
“Turkey should remain a candidate country but we’re negotiating with the government,” she added. “It’s become clear over the last two years that this government doesn’t want to meet criteria.”
Piri expects the EU foreign ministries to discuss and formally assess where Turkey stands on fulfilling the requirements for EU membership during a meeting on April 28. She also stressed that upholding the rule of law and human rights is an important part of the process that Turkey must align with.
One potential effect of suspending talks would be freezing the annual payments of some $650 million of EU pre-accession funds to Turkey.
Eventually Turkey will end up like a “modern” Middle Eastern country, where law and order will be decided by a dictator!