On Wednesday 24 August, the European commissioner for enlargement negotiations, Johannes Hahn, said he would like Turkey to clarify its position on whether it wanted to join the EU.
"If you want to be a member [of the EU], you must fulfil the criteria. The rules are not negotiable", Hahn said in an interview with Austrian newspaper Die Presse. "Turkey should soon make it clear whether it can and wants to accept these conditions. This open issue is putting pressure on relations" between Turkey and the EU, he added.
Hahn, who is from Austria, said he supported the accession negotiations continuing if "the other side" wanted this, and he recognised that within the EU there were "several schools of thought". Several politicians, including Austria's Chancellor Christian Kern, have spoken out in favour of stopping Turkey's accession negotiations. Hahn, however, again insisted on the fact that the re-establishing of the death penalty would mean "crossing the Rubicon" and that the EU would have to respond to this.
He also said that the current situation in Turkey "was not of a nature to contribute to our need for stability". In Hahn's view, the breadth and speed of arrests following the coup have "caused considerable irritation in large parts of Europe". He also rejected Turkish criticism that the EU had not condemned the coup enough, and he stated that the EU had done this "immediately" and "in unequivocal terms" (EUROPE 11596).
Asked about the Turkish threats to open up Turkey's borders and let migrants through to Europe, Hahn said that "words and emotions need to be disarmed", especially in "relations between Austria and Turkey". "Neighbours and partners must not threaten you", he added. "Regarding the migrant crisis, I don't think Turkey can or wants to do it without the EU's financial support", he said. A European Commission spokesperson, Alexander Winterstein, said on 24 August that the EU had released €2.239 billion for Turkey to support refugees. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)