Britain Clears Path for Turkey’s EU Membership

Commenting on revelations that Turkey’s accession to the EU is being accelerated, Vote Leave Chief Executive Matthew Elliott said:

‘This is the second time this week that the Government’s plans to accelerate visa-free travel and EU membership for Turkey have been revealed. David Cameron said he wants to “pave the road from Ankara” and the Brussels negotiations to make this happen are well underway. It is now abundantly clear that the only way to take back control of our borders is to Vote Leave on 23 June.’

• The Financial Times reports that David Cameron has just sped up Turkish accession, with talks to begin as early as the day after the referendum.

• This is just the latest example of Turkey’s accession being fast-tracked.

• David Cameron strongly supports Turkish accession at the earliest moment.

• Turkey is set to join the EU in the near future: we are paying them £1 billion to join.

David Cameron has just sped up Turkish accession, with talks to begin as early as the day after the referendum.

The Financial Times reports that: ‘Turkey’s EU membership talks are set to be given a boost within a fortnight, after Britain abandoned its attempt to freeze the process of opening a new “negotiating chapter” with Ankara until after its EU referendum… At a meeting of diplomats on Tuesday morning, Britain was the only member state to refuse to give its consent for talks to begin with Ankara on financial and budgetary issues, in spite of its traditional standing as one of the biggest champions of Turkish membership talks. However, London’s resistance only lasted a few hours, which means the formal opening of talks is expected on June 24 or 30, in line with the Turkey-EU deal’.

This is just the latest example of Turkey’s accession being fast-tracked.

On 29 November 2015, ‘the EU welcomed a re-energizing of the accession process’ as part of its attempt to contain its migrant crisis.

A new Chapter of the accession negotiations, on Economic and Monetary Policy, was opened on 14 December 2015. This represented a quickening of Turkish accession talks.

In May 2016, the Commission announced that progress towards accession would ‘accelerate’.

David Cameron strongly supports Turkish accession at the earliest moment.

David Cameron strongly supports Turkish accession. In 2010, Cameron said he was ‘angry’ at the slow pace of Turkish accession, that he was the ‘strongest possible advocate for EU membership’ for Turkey, and that ‘I want us to pave the road from Ankara to Brussels’. In 2014, he said that: ‘In terms of Turkish membership of the EU, I very much support that. That’s a long-standing position of British foreign policy which I support’.

The Government admitted it supported Turkish accession during the campaign. In April, the Europe Minister, David Lidington, said: ‘The UK supports Turkey’s EU accession process‘.

The British public will not get a vote on the accession of Turkey to the EU. The European Union Act 2011 allows the Government to ratify EU accession treaties without a referendum. There was no referendum on the accession of Croatia to the EU in 2013.

The Government opposes giving the British people a say. As the Minister for Europe, David Lidington, said in 2011: ‘A few years ago, 10 new member states joined the European Union at the same time. I believe that their combined population then was 73 million, which is slightly greater than Turkey’s population is now. I do not believe that anybody in this country argued at that time that a British referendum on those accessions was right’.

Turkey is set to join the EU in the near future: we are paying them to join.

Turkey is due to join the EU in the next few years, having already signed a deal with the EU to prepare for accession.

It is set to receive over £1 billion of UK funds to help prepare it for membership.

The new European Council building contains chairs and building space for Turkey when it joins.