{"id":450391,"date":"2026-04-15T12:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T10:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/04\/15\/la-turchia-perde-lo-slancio-per-ladesione-allue-a-causa-dellarretramento-democratico\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T12:49:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T10:49:20","slug":"turkey-lacks-eu-accession-momentum-due-to-democratic-backsliding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/04\/15\/turkey-lacks-eu-accession-momentum-due-to-democratic-backsliding\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey lacks EU accession momentum “due to democratic backsliding”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Turkey is not making progress<\/strong> on its path towards the European Union. In addition, at present, the country led by Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan is “lacking EU accession momentum due to democratic backsliding.<\/strong>” This is the view of the Committee on Foreign Affairs<\/a> in the European Parliament, in a report – adopted<\/a> today (15 April) with 44 votes in favor, 10 against, and 17 abstentions \u2013 which, on the one hand, calls on Ankara to take action on democratic reforms and, on the other, criticizes the \u201climited response of other European institutions\u201d to the country\u2019s disappointing developments, urging them to \u201ctake a stronger and more vocal stance in defense of democratic standards and the rule of law in  Turkey.\u201d <\/p>\n

The European Parliament\u2019s view on Ankara\u2019s path towards the EU has remained unchanged over the past few years. Back in July 2023, the Committee on Foreign Affairs had already been asked to give its opinion on the same question \u2014 Turkey\u2019s accession to the EU: yes or no? \u2014 and the outcome had been identical. In fact, Turkey has been in a deadlock in the accession process since 2018<\/strong>, when negotiations were frozen<\/a> due to the deterioration of the rule of law, fundamental rights, and democracy.<\/strong> As a result, the EU has deemed Turkey incompatible with the accession criteria. <\/p>\n

The application to join the Union was first<\/a> submitted in 1987<\/strong>, when the European Economic Community (EEC) comprised 12 Member States. Today, 39 years later<\/strong>, structural problems remain, standing in the way of Ankara\u2019s accession. The European Parliament\u2019s committee calls on Turkey to \u201ctackle persistent deficiencies<\/strong> in the areas of the rule of law, human rights, democratic standards, freedom of the press and other fundamental freedoms, as well as to respect good neighbourly relations and international law.\u201d Particular emphasis is placed on the need to “strengthen judicial independence<\/strong>, safeguard freedom of expression, protect journalists and the rights of local authorities, and put an end to politically motivated trials.<\/strong>“<\/p>\n

Despite everything, Turkey remains a country of strategic importance<\/strong> for the European Union<\/strong>, as well as a NATO ally, and MEPs highlight its significance due to its \u201cgrowing presence and influence in areas critical to international security and EU strategic interests, such as the Black Sea region, including Ukraine, the South Caucasus, and the Middle East.\u201d For these reasons, \u201cthe report highlights the importance of reinforcing EU-Turkey cooperation on regional security matters, particularly in light of the evolving geopolitical landscape.\u201d MEPs also call for \u201cthe modernization of the customs union<\/a>,” <\/strong>highlighting the importance of “Turkish compliance with outstanding benchmarks to restart the visa liberalization<\/strong> process.<\/strong>” Furthermore, the document calls on the EU and its Member States to maintain and, where possible, increase “financial assistance, stepping up support for Turkish civil society and refugee-led organizations.”<\/p>\n

 A window of opportunity for stronger cooperation still exists. The rapporteur for the text, the Spanish Socialist Sancho Nachez Amor<\/strong>, explains that \u201calthough we see no reason to resume the accession process<\/strong>, given the deterioration in democratic standards and the increasing repression of the opposition and critical voices, there is a window of opportunity to make progress <\/strong>on the rest of the bilateral sectoral agenda.<\/strong>\u201d Such an opening would include \u201ccloser cooperation on foreign policy is essential to achieving further progress on security and defense. We also hope to see progress in the ongoing \u2018Terror-free T\u00fcrkiye\u2019 initiative, but this requires determination and a willingness to take risks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ball now passes from the Committee on Foreign Affairs to the European Parliament\u2019s plenary session. The next appointment will therefore be one of the forthcoming sessions in Strasbourg, where the full House will vote on the report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is the view of the European Parliament\u2019s Committee on Foreign Affairs, which adopted a report by 44 votes to 10, with 17 abstentions. The rapporteur for the report, the Spanish Socialist Sancho Nachez Amor, said: \u201cWe see no reason to resume the accession process, but there is a window of opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7896,"featured_media":450385,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[26483,33768,27334,33769,26484,26746,33394],"class_list":["post-450391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-ankara","tag-enlargement","tag-processo-adesione","tag-turkey-en-2","tag-ue"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7896"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450391"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":450392,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450391\/revisions\/450392"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}