While negotiations for Turkey’s entry into the EU are supposedly at a standstill, Turkey has just quietly signed an agreement giving it access to certain advantages reserved for the European Union’s common market. Several MEPs from different formations of the national Right denounce this agreement.
The signing took place on Friday, March 31st. Turkey’s accession agreement to the Single Market Programme was signed by Ambassador Mehmet Kemal Bozay, deputy foreign minister and director of European affairs, on behalf of the Republic of Turkey, and Kerstin Jorna, director general for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, on behalf of the European Union at an online ceremony in Ankara and Brussels. There was no European media coverage of the event.
Detailed information can be found on the website of the Turkish government’s Directorate for European Affairs and was relayed by the French investigative website Fdesouche.com. It reads in part:
This important agreement aims to facilitate business access to markets, encourage entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills, modernise industry, address global and societal challenges and increase the competitiveness and sustainability of businesses, including the tourism sector, during the period 2021-2027.
According to the European Commission’s website, the €4.2 billion Single Market Programme is designed “to help the single market reach its full potential and ensure Europe’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.” Turkey, which has already benefited from a customs union with EU member states since 1995, will thus benefit from European aid for its businesses and innovation programmes.
French MEP Jean-Lin Lacapelle (Rassemblement National – Identity and Democracy) denounced a scheme that would allow Turkey to “compete unfairly with companies from EU member states.” French MEP Nicolas Bay, vice-president of Reconquête party, denounced the general silence surrounding this agreement.
The signing of this agreement with Turkey came a few days before Turkey validated Finland’s membership in NATO.
