Turkish Foreign Minister Criticizes EU Enlargement Slowdown

Faizan Hashmi Published September 02, 2022 | 10:32 PM

The process of the European Union enlargement has significantly slowed down amid stalled Turkish, North Macedonian and Albanian accession bids, with its agenda being formed by narrow political interests of certain countries, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday

ANKARA (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 02nd September, 2022) The process of the European Union enlargement has significantly slowed down amid stalled Turkish, North Macedonian and Albanian accession bids, with its agenda being formed by narrow political interests of certain countries, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday.

"The EU has become inward-looking, and narrow political interests hijacked the enlargement agenda," Cavusoglu said as quoted by the Turkish news agency Anadolu.

The head of Turkey's diplomacy noted that the enlargement was once one of the most successful political initiatives of the EU.

"Nobody can offer a good explanation as to why North Macedonia and Albania have been waiting for so long," Cavusoglu added.

Turkey signed the Agreement Creating an Association Between the Republic of Turkey and the European Economic Community (EEC, the predecessor of the EU) in 1963 and applied for full membership in 1987.

However, the negotiations on Turkey's accession to the EU began only in 2005 with only 16 chapters out of 35 necessary to complete the accession process being opened.In 2016, Turkey and the EU signed a refugee deal to accelerate the accession process and allow for visa-free travel, but after the EU accused Ankara of human rights violations and non-observance of the rule of law, the negotiations have frozen.

The bloc has been negotiating the accession with the Western Balkan countries for more than a decade. Albania and North Macedonia are among the EU candidate member states. The EU General Affairs Council decided to open accession negotiations with the two countries in March 2020. Currently, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, Moldova and Ukraine are EU candidate countries along with Albania and North Macedonia. Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia have allied for the EU membership while the partially-recognized Republic of Kosovo is a potential EU candidate.