Turkey's crackdown on dissent disrupts EU-Turkey relations: Europe in difficult balancing act
Description
"Business as usual with Turkey cannot continue." That was the message MEPs sent when they voted on a report about Turkey's EU accession process on May 7 in Strasbourg. Amid a crackdown on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's political rivals as well as on protesters, MEPs said that EU membership talks with Turkey cannot be restarted in the current circumstances. At the same time, the European Union does not want to shut the door on Turkey completely, as Ankara remains a significant partner within NATO and its interests overlap with the EU's in Ukraine.
So how should the EU stand up for human rights while still pursuing some form of realpolitik? We debate that question with our panel of MEPs in Strasbourg.
Programme prepared by Perrine Desplats, Oihana Almandoz, Isabelle Romero and Luke Brown
United States
