Turkey taking ‘huge strides’ away from the European Union: Official

TURKEY is moving rapidly away from the path of European Union membership, the top EU official in charge of negotiations said on Tuesday, as Brussels delivered its harshest criticism yet of what it sees as Ankara’s shift towards authoritarianism.

While couched in diplomatic language, the European Commission’s annual report on Turkey’s progress towards membership blamed Ankara for a broad, collective and disproportionate crackdown after a failed 2016 coup attempt.

It warned that years of progress towards European Union standards in human rights, freedom of expression and the rule of law were being reversed and that Turkey had seen a weakening of local democracy as presidential powers increased.

Turkey “continues to take huge strides away from the EU, in particular in the areas of rule of law and fundamental rights,” European Commissioner Johannes Hahn, who oversees EU membership bids, told a news conference after publishing the report.

“The Commission has repeatedly called on Turkey to reverse this negative trend as a matter of priority and makes very clear the recommendations on this in today’s report,” he said.

In response, Turkey said it was not being treated fairly or objectively by the EU, and added that despite the report its goal was still to join the bloc.

“Turkey isn’t the one moving away from the European Union. The side that is not objective and is, unfortunately, biased and unfair, is the EU,” Turkish government spokesman Bekir Bozdağ said, adding that positive elements in the report did not mask the bloc’s unfairness towards Ankara.

“Despite this, we have not abandoned our European Union goal, and we have no intention to do so going forward,” he said after a Cabinet meeting.

The report marks a new low point in EU-Turkey relations after the promise of Turkish political and economic reforms a decade ago. It bodes poorly for Ankara’s hopes of negotiating an EU free-trade deal and visa-free travel for Turks to the bloc.

Turkey began talks to join the EU in 2005, 18 years after applying. While a series of factors slowed negotiations, notably the Cyprus issue and resistance in Germany and France to Turkish membership, since 2016 membership talks have all but collapsed.