Austria threatens to block EU-Turkey accession talks

Austria threatens to block EU-Turkey accession talks

PanARMENIAN.Net - Austria has threatened to freeze EU accession talks with Turkey in protest at President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s crackdown on the Turkish opposition since July’s failed coup, The Irish Times reports.

Austria’s foreign minister Sebastian Kurz has said he will use Monday, December 12’s foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels to block accession talks, in a vote requiring unanimity of all member states.

Kurz said Austria was not prepared to agree to the current draft resolution because it did not contain the “necessary reaction to developments in Turkey”.

“Dissidents are being intimidated, opposition politicians locked up, the death sentence is supposed to be restored,” he said to Austrian news agency APA ahead of the latest Turkish bombing. “A clear reaction of the EU is needed.”

The Austrian foreign minister warned of a “dangerous form of dependency” if the EU, to keep intact its refugee swap deal with Turkey, appeased Ankara by looking away from the current crackdown.

The move by Kurz, co-ordinated with his Dutch and Bulgarian counterparts, follows a non-binding vote by the European parliament to put EU-Turkey talks on ice.

The Austrian move puts Vienna on a collision course with Berlin and Brussels. Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel, politically never enthused by Turkey’s EU ambitions, has insisted on the continuation of “open-ended talks” with Ankara, steered by the European Commission.

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