On Thursday 19 October, the EU heads of state and government asked the European Commission to consider a reduction and/or re-orientation of the pre-accession funds for Turkey, due to the human rights situation in that country.
"We agreed on a request to consider, and make proposals on, the re-orientation of aid, possibly correcting it downwards", Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker stated at the end of the European Council. These proposals will come "soon, very soon", "in the coming weeks", according to a European source.
"We must not forget that with the pre-accession aid we wanted to bring Turkey closer to European standards. This has clearly not happened and it is thus time to reconsider the concept (of the pre-accession funds), knowing that Turkey will continue to be a very important partner for Europe", Austria's Chancellor Christian Kern stated. Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, meanwhile calls for the funds currently given to the Turkish government to be allocated instead to human rights organisations. Juncker said that a third of the funds are already for civil society or human rights organisations. "We will probably amplify the move", he said, stating that it was not possible to re-direct the pre-accession funds to aid for Syrian refugees in Turkey.
The budget planned for the funds to Turkey for the 2014-2020 period amounts to €4.4 billion, but so far only €368 million has been allocated. In the opinion of one European source, the EU leaders' decision equates to "addressing a message to the Turks", and the source added that this was the first time such a decision has been taken.
According to a European diplomat, the discussion on Turkey lasted over two and a half hours in a "negative" atmosphere. "Scepticism about Turkey's EU accession was clear and obvious", European Council President Donald Tusk stated, adding that the EU wanted "to keep the door open with regard to Ankara, but the current situation makes this difficult". For Italy's Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, the reflection on the pre-accession funds "is not an announcement that we are breaking off" relations. "We agreed on the need to avoid breaking off relations and to hold a very strong and very demanding dialogue with Turkey", France's President Emmanuel Macron stated. Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, who was at the origin of the discussion, said that the next step should be to contact the Turks.
According to the European diplomat, the discussion also focused on a possible break-up of relations with Turkey, decided upon by one or other of the two sides. Stating that the Commission would present its traditional report on enlargement in spring 2018, this diplomat thought that the relationship could develop negatively after this report, and that it was important to think of alternatives, "should this be the case". (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant with editorial team)