EU membership talks with Turkey cannot resume without democratic progress, parliament rapporteur says

(Horizon Media / STRASBOURG) – Turkey’s European Union accession talks cannot be revived without concrete progress on democracy, rule of law and fundamental rights, the European Parliament’s rapporteur on Turkey, Nacho Sánchez Amor, said last Wednesday.

Speaking after European lawmakers adopted their 2025 report on Turkey, Sánchez Amor said Ankara remains an important neighbour and partner for the EU, but warned that the country’s democratic backsliding has made the resumption of membership negotiations impossible under current conditions.

“It’s very frustrating to be the rapporteur on Turkey, because we have had no good news for many, many years,” the Spanish lawmaker told reporters, adding that the report once again had to underline concerns over rule of law, judicial independence, press freedom and fundamental rights.

Turkey’s EU accession negotiations formally began in 2005 but have been effectively frozen for years. Sánchez Amor said he had received appeals from Turkish opposition figures, including jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, jailed former pro-Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtaş and CHP leader Özgür Özel, urging the EU to consider reviving the process. But he said there were “no objective conditions” to restart talks.

The rapporteur also criticized what he described as weak EU responses to Turkey’s domestic situation, accusing the European Commission and the EU’s foreign policy service of failing to speak clearly in defence of Turkish civil society. “We are losing the pro-European civil society in Turkey,” he said. “They feel abandoned, they feel orphaned.”

Sánchez Amor raised particular concern over pressure on the main opposition Republican People’s Party, which dealt President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling party a major defeat in the 2024 local elections. He said the CHP was being “carefully dismantled” after its victories in Istanbul, Ankara and other major municipalities.

He accused Turkish authorities of using the judiciary to weaken the opposition, pointing to the imprisonment of İmamoğlu, who was jailed pending trial in March 2025 on corruption charges he denies. Sánchez Amor described the case against İmamoğlu and more than 100 others as “fabricated” and part of a wider attempt to dismantle political opposition.

“This is still a club of democracies,” Sánchez Amor said. “We want the European Union to stay as a club of democracies.”