Turkey's 2014 EP Progress Report harming European institutions’ credibility, says EU Joint Parliamentary Committee co-chair

Afif Demirkıran, the co-chair of the Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Committee, has argued in a press release that Turkey's 2014 Progress Report on EU membership compiled by European Parliament (EP) last week is damaging Turkey-EU relations and harming the credibility of European institutions for the Turkish public.

The EP adopted the resolution of the 2014 Progress Report on Turkey during its plenary session on June 10, 2015. Expressing his views on the report with a press statement, Demirkıran said while the first draft of the report was acceptable for Turkey, the tone and the essence of the report was altered with amendment proposals and the report has taken an unacceptable shape. Demirkıran said: "The adopted report, including biased statements and unsupported claims is far from being balanced and it has been a one-sided report. The fact that the text recently adopted by the European Parliament about Turkey has been drafted in a subjective manner is without a doubt damaging Turkey-EU relations and harming the credibility of European institutions for Turkish public.

Claiming that Turkey has been subjected to double standards many times since becoming a candidate, and the negotiation process has been prolonged with no valid reasons, Demirkıran said even under these circumstances Turkey has not given up on EU membership and has continued the reform process even for chapters that are blocked to speed up the negotiations. "I hope EP abandons the tone it employed that blocks the negotiations and starts contributing to Turkey-EU relations and the negotiations process by employing a constructive tone as soon as possible. I have been saying to my European counterparts that EP resolutions are very important for Turkey. However, when drafted in a subjective manner that includes biased statements and unsupported claims, these resolutions damage both Turkey-EU relations and the negotiations process and makes the role of the EP questionable," he said.