14 March 2019•Update: 15 March 2019
RABAT, Morocco
The European Parliament report passed this week urging the suspension of Turkey's EU accession process was prepared under the helm of "racist and extremist politicians," said Turkey's parliament speaker on Thursday.
The EP report was “biased, unfair and, unfounded,” Mustafa Sentop told Anadolu Agency in Morocco's capital Rabat, where he attended an Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) parliamentary meeting.
On Wednesday, the European Parliament voted against Turkey's EU accession negotiations and called on European countries to formally suspend the process.
"Turkey has shown its sincerity regarding its EU [membership process] and stability in its goals. It's also saddening for the EU, as this decision came just a very short time before the start of [resumed] negotiations," Sentop said, referring to a Turkey-EU Association Council meeting on Friday, the first in four years.
The EU faces an “identity crisis,” he added.
"After the U.K.'s decision to leave the bloc, the EU has suffered a great deal of damage within the framework of its political dimensions. Many EU member states are discussing whether or not they will remain together," Sentop said.
On Wednesday, the report to suspend Turkey's EU negotiations passed by a vote of 370-109, with 143 abstentions.
The 2018 Commission Report on Turkey, prepared by Rapporteur Kati Piri, passed the EP's Foreign Affairs Committee last month.
The non-binding advisory report drew criticism from Turkey.
Turkey applied for EU membership in 1987, and accession talks began in 2005.
But negotiations stalled in 2007 due to the objections of the Greek Cypriot administration on the divided island of Cyprus as well as opposition from Germany and France.
*Writing by Sibel Morrow
