Ankara is breathing fire against the suggestion of ‘special status’ on EU membership.
Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu criticized Slovenian President Borut Pahor’s statements over suggesting Turkey a “special status”, instead of a full Europian Union (EU) membership.
Speaking at the 14th Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia on Monday, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said Pahor was “strongly” supporting Turkey’s EU membership until last year.
“I do not know what changed his mind. Probably (French President Emmanuel) Macron and some others. But there should be a principle of continuity of the state and also of the EU,” Çavuşoğlu said.
He said Turkey is ready to open a new door in negotiations with the Europian Union if the issue is related to standards and commitments.
Çavuşoğlu said if Turkey fails to meet the opening or closing benchmarks, then Turkey cannot be a member.
“But if Turkey meets the opening benchmarks of the chapters, then, we should actually continue our negotiations,” he stressed.
Pahor said that he would suggest a “special status” for Turkey and Ukraine, and full EU membership for Western Balkan countries.
Turkey is negotiating its accession to the European Union (EU) as a member state. After its application accedes to the European Economic Community (a precursor to the EU) on 14 April 1987. Turkey signed a Customs Union agreement with the EU in 1995 and was officially recognized as a candidate for full membership on 12 December 1999, at the Helsinki summit of the European Council.
Accession talks began in 2005 and Progress was slow, after then negotiations were attacked in 2007 due to objections by the Greek Cypriot administration, as well as opposition from Germany and France In 2007. Turkey stated that they were aiming to comply with EU standards and law by 2013, but Brussels refused to back that as a deadline for membership. Later, out of the 35 Chapters necessary to complete the accession process, only 16 had been opened and one had been closed by 2016.
Since 2016 accession negotiations have stalled. The EU has accused and criticized Turkey for human rights violations and lacks in the rule of law.