00:00The message is clear.
00:06Turkey's EU accession process, stalled since 2018, cannot be relaunched under the current circumstances.
00:13This is the conclusion of a report on Turkey approved by the European Parliament on Wednesday.
00:19Arrest of the mayor of Istanbul, repression of anti-government protests, human rights violations.
00:25The MEPs denounced the ongoing backslide in democracy.
00:30The accession process is frozen. There are no progress in any way.
00:33On the contrary, Turkey probably is the only country backsliding in democratic standards.
00:39And for that reason, what we maintain is the idea that the accession process is suspended and well suspended
00:45because we didn't receive any good news on democratic standards from the year 13 till now.
00:52And the last detention and harassment of the mayor of Mamoglu is probably the peak of this repressive trend.
01:02Security, trade and migration. Turkey remains a strategic partner of the EU and ally within NATO.
01:08In a debate at the European Parliament, the Commissioner for Enlargement stressed the need to deepen cooperation with Ankara.
01:17The 2016 EU-Turkiye statement on migration continues to yield results.
01:23Irregular arrivals from Turkey to the EU have fallen by 33% so far in this year compared with the same period last year.
01:32For his part, the reporter calls for Turkey's accession to the EU not to be definitely ruled out.
01:38We have to distinguish between the country and the current rulers.
01:43It's true that under the AKP ruling it's impossible to advance because there are no other political will to advance in democracy and values.
01:50But there is a vibrant civil society asking us, imploring us not to shut the door.
01:57They want to maintain the hope that maybe in the future, with another rulers, with another country, with another environment,
02:05it could be an opportunity again for Turkey to re-engage with the European Union on the basis of membership.
02:11The reporter insists there are no shortcuts to EU membership.
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