Accession negotiations with Turkey
6.12.2018
Question for written answer E-006163-18
to the Commission
Rule 130
Philippe Juvin (PPE)
Article 49 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) provides that any European State which respects the EU values referred to in Article 2 of the Treaty and is committed to promoting them may apply to become a member of the Union. The Council is required to act unanimously on an application for membership after receiving the consent of the European Parliament.
Having been seeking EU entry since 1987, Turkey was officially recognised as a candidate at the 1999 Helsinki summit. However, the negotiations, which commenced in October 2005, have failed to make significant headway to date, owing to the increasingly hard line being taken by Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s regime, leading the country to progressively shun European Union values relating to the rule of law and human rights.
While Turkey has already been penalised through a reduction in pre-accession funding, Article 49 makes no provision for the freezing of negotiations or possible termination of the accession process. In view of this:
- 1.Can the Commission say what procedures would need to be followed to break off accession negotiations with Turkey?
- 2.Will it accordingly take takes steps to suspend or terminate the negotiations?