On Wednesday 30 October, the European Commission said that Turkey, a “candidate country and key partner of the EU” whose accession negotiations with the country have been at a standstill since 2018, had “not reversed the negative trend of continued deterioration of democratic standards noted in past years”.
In its communication on the EU’s enlargement policy, the Commission stresses that the EU’s “serious” concerns in the areas of fundamental rights and the rule of law, including the independence of the judiciary, remain. “No progress was made on key issues identified in previous reports”, says the report.
According to the Commission, implementation of the recommendations in the joint communication on the state of political, economic and trade relations between the EU and Turkey is “advancing” and avenues for re-engagement are being explored. “The high-level commitment has continued and a new high-level dialogue on trade has been launched, confirming the progress made in this area”, the report states.
The Commission also notes that “regrettably Türkiye maintained a very low alignment rate” with the common foreign and security policy and it has continued to decrease (5%, compared with 9% in 2023).
Turkey should also actively support negotiations on a fair, comprehensive and viable settlement of the Cyprus issue within the UN framework.
See the Commission communication: https://aeur.eu/f/e3a
See the report on Turkey: https://aeur.eu/f/e3d (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)