Johannes Hahn, the European Union (EU) Commissioner for European Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations, said that the EU will 40 percent of the European Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) for Turkey in the portion reserved for 2018, according to a report by Germany’s Deutsche Welle (DW) on Thursday.
Speaking at the session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Thursday, Hahn said that “democracy and human rights in Turkey have deteriorated, distancing the country from Europea.” Emphasizing that IPA funds should be reduced and directed to “priority” areas, Hahn indicated as recipient non-governmental organizations operating in the fields of democracy, human rights and the state of law.
The EU has allocated some 4 billion 453 million euro financial assistance to Turkey to use as pre-accession aid in the negotiations with the country. This amount covers the period from 2014 to 2020. According to the DW’s report, the amount will be cut by about 253 million euros with the 2018 budget.
If there are no positive developments in these areas by the end of 2018, the planned financial aid for 2019 and 2020 will be cut by 253 million euros. Should this happen Turkey will suffer a total cut in the 2014-2020 budget of about 750 million euros.
The European Commission wants the EU Delegation to Turkey to directly manage and distribute part of the IPA assistance, this would be the section devoted to civil society dialogue. According to the new understanding, some of the financial assistance foreseen for infrastructure works will be directed to areas that are considered “priority” by the EU, such as human rights, the rule of law and democratization.
It is the first time that the European Union cuts financial assistance allocated to a candidate country during membership negotiations. As it happened n 2016 when all the political groups supported the decision to suspend membership negotiations with Turkey temporarily, they also supported the European Parliament on the financial assistance cuts.
According to DW’s report, some MEPs said that “Turkish government has purchased armored vehicles with assistance money, and with these same armored vehicles have forced asylum seekers coming from Syria back to the country.”
Kati Piri, European Parliament rapporteur on Turkey, has called on the European Commission to launch an investigation on allegations that armored vehicles have been purchased with IPA money.
Some MEPs also said that with these armored vehicles “a large number of Syrian refugees were killed.”. The statement prompted an answer by Hahn who said that indeed Turkey had bought armored vehicles with IPA money for “border security,” but added that these armored vehicles carried no weapons, which is why, he said there is no evidence that asylum seekers have been killed by these vehicles.
The post European Parliament decides to cut IPA funds for Turkey appeared first on Stockholm Center for Freedom.
from Stockholm Center for Freedom https://stockholmcf.org/european-parliament-decides-to-cut-ipa-funds-for-turkey/
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