Any decision permanently to suspend long-running but stalled Turkish EU accession talks would be one for the union's heads of government, a spokesman for the European Commission insisted yesterday in response to a demand in the German TV election debate that they should be ended.
Germany's chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday night had said "it is clear that Turkey should not become a member of the European Union" in response to her rival Martin Schulz's announcement he would move to formally halt its membership talks were he elected chancellor.
Turkey's erosion of democratic rights and widespread arrests of opposition members has caused concern in Germany and other European capitals despite the EU's determination to maintain the 2016 refugee deal withTurkey, which was intended to accelerate negotiations after previous stagnation and allow visa-free travel through Europe for Turks.
The commisison spokesman said that the EU's support for Turkish accession was "not unlimited or unconditional" and drew journalists' attention to a speech by commission president Jean Claude Juncker last week in which he warned that it was Turkey and its president, Reccip Erdogan, who were "taking great strides away from EU membership" .
Instead of formally ending EU membership talks, Dr Merkel said she would would look at imposing "real restrictions on economic contact" including through the European Investment Bank, EU aid, World Bank and by blocking talks on expanding Turkey's customs union agreement with the EU, a move that could hit billions of euro in potential Turkish exports.
Negotiations for full membership were started in October 2005 but progress has been very slow, with only 16 of the 35 talks chapters necessary to complete the accession process opened. Talks were suspended as a result of the mass purges following the attempted coup of July, 2016.
A commission official, however, welcomed the reality that the flow of refugees from Turkey to Greece remained some 97 per cent down on a year ago and acknowledged that there was no evidence of a change in policy on the Turkish part.
