Responding to rumours about Germany challenging both EU aid to Turkey as part of the accession negotiations, and negotiations on updating the customs union, in order to put pressure on Ankara to uphold the rule of law, the European Commission stated on Tuesday 1 August, that "any decision of suspension of pre-accession funding should not be taken in isolation from the general approach to relations with Turkey". It also underlined the need "to take into account the implications for our beneficiaries in Turkey".
"The Commission continues to believe that our engagement with Turkey is all the more necessary in the light of the latest developments. Currently more than one third of the pre-accession funds for 2014-2020 focus on specific reforms in preparation for the EU membership – in particular, in the priority sectors of democracy, governance, empowerment of the civil society, rule of law and fundamental rights", the Commission spokesperson stated.
On the issue of freezing pre-accession financing, European Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn "had the opportunity to clarify [at the EU-Turkey political dialogue on 25 July]. He said it is a decision related to the suspension or to the ending of accession talks. So there you have different modalities that need to be complied with", a Commission spokesperson stated.
As to the idea of launching negotiations to update the 21-year old EU-Turkey customs union, "the Commission submitted a draft negotiation directive to launch talks with Turkey" and it is now up to the Council to decide, the spokesperson added.
According to several media sources, the German government is reportedly preparing a letter to High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini and to Hahn, calling for preparatory work to be suspended on the negotiations to update the customs union, as this would send the "wrong signal" to Ankara. The letter apparently mentions other wishes from Berlin to be implemented at European level in order to put pressure on Turkey as regards respect for the rule of law. These go as far as looking into "suspending all pre-accession aid to Turkey if the need arises". (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)