The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is discussing today whether to degrade Turkey’s status and reopen a monitoring process against the country.
The co-rapporteurs of the monitoring committee, including PACE Co-Rapporteur on Turkey Ingebjorg Godskesen, have recommended that the assembly “re-open the monitoring procedure in respect to Turkey until its concerns are addressed in a satisfactory manner.”
The initiative to degrade Turkey’s status is “openly a political operation” against Turkey, presidential spokesperson İbrahim Kalın said.
Several amendments to the content of the report have been proposed ahead of the April 25 vote by members of the assembly, while Turkey also submitted a number of amendment proposals ahead of the vote.
If PACE subjects Turkey to monitoring, the move would have negative effects on Turkey-EU relations. In 2004, the EU said Ankara had to exit the monitoring process in order to meet the Copenhagen criteria. In the same year, the EU provided a date to begin accession negotiations after the monitoring status was lifted, ruling that Turkey had successfully met the Copenhagen criteria.
If PACE decides to begin monitoring Turkey once more, it would confirm that Ankara has not fulfilled the Copenhagen Criteria, which was the starting point for the accession negotiations.
The EU Council will review the request at the end of this month if PACE downgrades Turkey’s status, the Hurriyet Daily reported.
