Leden Europees Parlement verdeeld over toetredingsproces Turkije (en) - Montesquieu Instituut

Turkey's ongoing disputes with Cyprus and Greece and the deterioration in press freedom in the country dominated Tuesday's debate on progress made in 2010 on Turkey's EU membership negotiations. MEPs from all groups were very critical of Turkey's slow progress but expressed differing political views on whether to support its accession aspirations.

Most political groups welcomed the idea of launching a visa dialogue with Turkey aimed at smoothing the mobility of students and businesspeople but when it came to evaluating the country's readiness to join the EU, the EPP, GUE, and EFD groups were mostly critical about the idea of accession. The S&D, ALDE and Greens/EFA groups instead blamed the Council for blocking the closing or opening of some negotiation chapters. "Negotiation process is being threatened by strangulation", as one Socialist MEP put it. 

A resolution drafted by Ria Oomen-Ruijten (EPP, NL) will be put to the vote Wednesday 9 March.