Ankara's talks with the European Union concerning accession to the bloc have "come to standstill," as Turkey continues getting further away from the bloc, the European Commission said in its annual report on Turkey released on Wednesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th May, 2019) Ankara's talks with the European Union concerning accession to the bloc have "come to standstill," as Turkey continues getting further away from the bloc, the European Commission said in its annual report on Turkey released on Wednesday."In June 2018, the General Affairs Council concluded that Turkey has been moving further away from the European Union. Turkey's accession negotiations have therefore effectively come to a standstill and no further chapters can be considered for opening or closing and no further work towards the modernisation of the EUTurkey Customs Union is foreseen," the report said.
The report stressed that despite Turkey's commitment to the objective of EU accession, the country's government has not carried out corresponding reforms and the European Union was still concerned over "negative developments" in such areas as rule of law, human rights and judicial system.
At the same time, according to the report, Ankara remains a key partner for the bloc and dialogue in such spheres as economy, energy, migration, trade and support of refugees continues.
Earlier in May, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that EU efforts to ensure its declared values were "doomed to failure" without Turkey's full-fledged membership in the bloc, adding that Ankara fulfilled 66 out of 72 criteria put forward by the European Union as a condition for the introduction of a visa-free regime.
In 1963, Turkey signed an agreement with the European Economic Community, the European Union's predecessor. In 1987, Ankara filed an application to become an official member of the bloc, however, the negotiations between the two sides did not begin until 2005.
The bilateral talks stalled in 2016 following an attempted coup in Turkey, which was suppressed by the authorities, who introduced a state of emergency in the country and proceeded to purges of tens of thousands of people accused of being involved in the coup. The European Union condemned the Turkish authorities' tough measures toward the opposition, including mass detentions, which became another stumbling block in the accession talks.
