During the meeting of the&nbsp;Committee on Foreign Affairs&nbsp;(AFET) in the EP in Brussels, MEPs vote and Kati PIRI (S&amp;D, NL), Rapporteur, expresses herself on the 2016 Commission Report on Turkey.

Brussels

statement

meeting

EU - Türkiye (T)

Enlargement to Türkiye (T)

vote

PIRI, Kati (S&D, NL)

2016 Commission Report on Turkey: extracts from the vote and statement by Kati PIRI (S&D,NL), Rapporteur

Final e-vote , adopted: total voters 68; in favour 51; against 3 abstentions 14

SOUNDBITE (English), Kati PIRI (S&amp;D, NL), rapporteur, All the groups in this Parliament have a different position about what should be the future of EU-Turkey relations. While we see that the Commission and the Council are actually silent about what&rsquo;s going on in Turkey I am proud and of course it was the toughest battle to make sure that Parliament speaks with one voice. One voice of concern about the human rights in Turkey and one voice that it will have consequence&rsquo;s on the accession process. So, what we adopted today says, if the constitutional package will be implemented unchanged this means that we will have to lead to the formal suspension of the accession talks with Turkey.

SOUNDBITE (English), Kati PIRI (S&amp;D, NL), If there is a suspension of the accession process, automatically you also have a suspension of the so- called pre-accession funds. We also indicated that in case that scenario comes into reality, the money that is now allocated to Turkey should be spent directly on civil society in Turkey. So, not back to the EU budget but the money that was meant for the Turkish population should be directly also dispersed to the Turkish population.

SOUNDBITE (English), Kati PIRI (S&amp;D, NL), Turkey to be honest over the last 6 years, of course, have done a lot when it comes to hosting refugees. There is still 3.2 million refugees today in Turkey and we also urge in the report. The member states of the EU, they made a promise with the EU-Turkey deal to take more vulnerable refugees from Turkey to the EU. So, it is not just critical when it comes to the Turkish government but we also clearly insist that the EU sticks to its part of the deal.