Germany increases EU pressure on Turkey, wants customs union talks halted

Berlin is pushing the European Commission to halt talks with Turkey over updating the customs union, claiming that a continuation would send the “wrong signal” to Ankara, the Brussels-based EU portal Euractiv reported.

The report said that according to a document seen by Reuters, the German government wants the European Commission to suspend preparatory work on negotiations with Turkey about modernising the EU-Turkey Customs Union.

The customs union between the EU and Turkey entered into force in 1995, but it concerns only certain categories of goods. But bilateral trade between the two sides has increased in recent years and the agreement needed to be updated.

Particularly at the end of last year, the European Commission asked the European Council to open negotiations with Turkey to “update” the union.

But in light of political developments in Turkey, which have triggered strong reactions in EU member states, Germany now wants to “freeze” the talks in order to avoid sending the “wrong signal”.

The paper went further, saying that Berlin was in favour of other measures that would raise financial pressure on Turkey to respect the rule of law. It said that given developments in Turkey pre-accession aid (IPA) should be targeted “even more towards supporting democracy and the rule of law”. It also said the European Commission should look into suspending all preaccession aid to Turkey if the need arises.

It added that Germany expected the Commission to “shift funding away from Turkey in a way that is meaningful compared to the overall funding Turkey receives under the IPA schemes”.

In an interview with Euractiv’s partner Der Tagesspiegel, European People’s Party (EPP) leader in the European Parliament Manfred Weber stated that the EU had repeatedly extended its hand to Turkey through various initiatives but Turkish President (Recep Tayyip) Erdo an has consistently spurned it.

“Turkey’s EU accession makes no sense,” he said.

Reports in Athens suggested that in the event of such a development, the Cyprus talks could be directly affected, considering that Greece wanted to use it as a leverage to put more pressure on Turkey.

In an interview with Euractiv, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias stressed that the customs union was “a good tool” for the development of EU-Turkey relations.

“Big economic interests are at stake on both sides, especially in Turkey, where they estimate that they will have about EUR 50-60 billion of profit. So it is a lever that can be used properly in order to better develop and respond to the Cyprus problem,” he said.

Referring to Cyprus, which joined the EU in 2004, he noted that in the first step towards the customs union, Turkey showed that it wanted to separate the EU member states, between those that it recognises as states and those that it does not recognise.

“In order for Turkey to have a real customs union and benefit from it, it must understand that the EU consists of 28, and after Brexit, 27 member states and must accept them as such,” he explained.