MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th March, 2019) Manfred Weber, the European People's Party top candidate to head the European Commission, on Wednesday promised to end talks with Turkey on EU accession if he is elected.
"Everyone wants to have good ties with Turkey and work close together, but if I am Commission president I will tell authorities in Brussels to stop accession talks between Turkey and the EU. Turkey cannot be a member of the EU. Let's make it clear," he said.
Weber was speaking at a meeting in Passau of the Christian Social Union, the sister party of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union. The elections to the European Parliament are set for May.
Turkey has been in off-and-on talks on joining the European Union since 2005. Brussels promised Ankara to re-energize the negotiations in return for taking back migrants but a coup attempt in Turkey months later prompted a crackdown and strained its ties with the bloc.
