Labour MEP Alfred Sant has abstained on a European Parliament vote on the European Union’s relations with Turkey and expressed regret that the EU’s relations with Turkey have become highly problematic during the last few years.
The vote was taken on the Parliament’s annual report on Turkey, which deals with a number of policy areas including Turkey’s accession process, the rule of law and fundamental rights as well as migration.
The report, adopted by 480 votes in favour, 64 against and 150 abstentions, insists that if Turkey does not reverse this current negative trend, the European Commission should recommend that the accession negotiations
be formally suspended.
“I am one of those who believe that a main reason for the problems is not solely confined to the Turkish administration, but extends to the EU itself, for first agreeing to the option of Turkish membership, then dilly dallying over it, practically in bad faith”, Alfred Sant told the European Parliament.
Alfred Sant noted that the annual report rightly tackles issues related with Turkey’s accession to the EU on which, the EU and Turkey are failing to converge. He added that the report is also correct in condemning the unacceptable strong-arm tactics against Greece and Cyprus.
“On the other hand, the report fails to give a tangible positive way forward for EU-Turkey relations. Instead, while the Resolution asks Turkey to follow the EU’s foreign and security policy, and while it wants Turkey to keep absorbing the bulk of migration flows from the Middle East, it wants to penalise the country for not following major EU lines in other areas”.
“This approach can only fail to achieve whatever it is seeking to achieve, and can indeed be faulted for incoherence. Moreover, as is often the case in such reports, the conclusions clearly reflect a one-sided judgment. Therefore, I abstained on the final vote”, Alfred Sant concluded.
