No entry for Turkey with new Constitution
Brussels, April 26: The European Union should formally suspend Turkey’s long-stalled talks on membership if it adopts constitutional changes backed at a referendum last week, a leading member of the EU parliament responsible for dealings with Ankara said on Wednesday.
Kati Piri said ahead of a plenary debate on the matter that if President Tayyip Erdogan implemented his new charter, giving him even more powers, Turkey would close the door on membership.
Ties between EU states and their Nato ally Turkey soured in the aftermath of a failed coup last July as the bloc was taken aback by Erdogan’s sweeping security crackdown that followed. Austria has long called for aborting Turkey’s EU bid altogether but other EU states have been more cautious, highlighting the bloc depends on Ankara to keep a lid on the flow of refugees from Middle East.