On Friday 8 September, Turkey's Foreign Affairs Minister Ömer Çelik said that Germany was using the European Union to settle bilateral issues.
Some member states are taking advantage of the current situation to "try and use the EU to address bilateral issues", he told several journalists on the sidelines of the informal meeting of foreign affairs ministers and EU candidate country ministers in Tallinn. "The EU must not be used to settle bilateral issues", he added, saying that this "damaged the EU's prestige".
While Germany is an "ally" of Turkey, "we are really very uncomfortable about the arguments put forward by certain German politicians", Çelik stated. He added that he would like the "vicious circle" of remarks about Turkey to be "broken" "to concentrate on the future".
"You cannot speak of halting or suspending the accession negotiations, then start them again six months later", Çelik warned, saying there was no "drive" among the member states to suspend the negotiations. The negotiation talks are frozen de facto because the European side does not want to open new negotiation chapters – a stance that Çelik again criticised. "The EU criticises fundamental rights and judicial independence (in Turkey), so let's open the negotiation chapters on this. Let's start negotiating. That's why there are chapters – to work together", he said. Çelik referred to negotiation chapters 23 (justice and fundamental rights) and 24 (freedom, security and justice). "On each of the subjects on which we are criticised, we are ready to talk and to work together", he added. He expressed surprise that when it came to Poland or Brexit, discussions had been opened to address these issues, but this is not the case with a candidate country.
While many European ministers stated that Turkey was an important partner in the fight against terrorism and in managing the migrant crisis, their Turkish counterpart refused to limit EU-Turkey relations to these issues. "We have a lot more to offer the EU. The backbone (or our relations) is full and complete accession to the EU", he said.
In Çelik's view, the decision the EU will take will be "much more a decision about the future of the EU than that of Turkey".
Reynders says Commission must clarify European position
Belgium's Foreign Minister Didier Reynders meanwhile called on the European Commission to clarify the European position on the accession negotiations. "The European Commission must say which initiative to take", he said, adding that European Commissioner for Enlargement Negotiations Johannes Hahn should "operate the EU position officially". "We can't act as if we were going to relaunch" the negotiations when, "as long as there are no positive developments, it will not be a case of moving", he said.
According to a European source, Turkey could be discussed at the Foreign Affairs Council taking place in Luxembourg on 16 October. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)