EP asks EU to officially suspend negotiations on Turkey's accession

By Azernews

By Kamila Aliyeva

The Committee of the European Parliament (EP) on foreign affairs urged the European Commission (EC) and the EU member states to officially suspend negotiations on Turkey's accession to the community.

This was stated in the annual report of the EP Committee on Turkey, TASS reported.

"Taking into account the results of the recent referendum in Turkey and the expansion of presidential powers, the foreign affairs committee calls on the EP and the national governments of the EU to officially suspend negotiations on Turkey's accession without delay if the package of constitutional reform is implemented without changes," the document said.

The members of the Committee almost unanimously voted for the relevant draft resolution.

The document is expected to be put to the vote of the whole parliament at the July plenary session in Strasbourg.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim recently said that Turkey wants to open a new page in relations with the European Union.

Earlier, EU minister and chief negotiator on the issues of accession Omer Celik said that Turkey should not refuse to join the EU.

Accession negotiations started in 2005, but until Turkey agrees to apply the Additional Protocol of the Ankara Association Agreement to Cyprus, eight negotiation chapters will not be opened and no chapter will be provisionally closed.

Turkey-EU relations, after years of deadlock following the opening of accession talks in 2005 have intensified in 2016 with parties closely cooperating to stem the flow of refugees into the EU.

The visa liberalization scheme for Turkish citizens and the speeding up of Turkey’s EU accession negotiations are also part of the migration deal agreed upon in November 2015 and finalized in March this year.

However, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)'s recent decision to reopen a political monitoring process against Turkey deteriorated relations between Ankara and Brussels and put under the question Turkey's accession.