EU slashes Turkey’s pre-accession funds by $124m

ANKARA: After several calls from German Chancellor Angela Merkel for a cut to the EU’s pre-accession assistance to Turkey, the bloc announced on Saturday a significant decrease in its funds for Turkey under the EU’s 2018 budget deal.

The reason cited is the bloc’s doubts over Turkey’s deteriorating situation in terms of democracy, rule of law and human rights, core criteria for EU



membership.

Although it still needs to be formally approved by the EU Council and the European Parliament, the decision is considered a new blow to Turkey’s accession process, which has been frozen for years.

The reduction is about €105 million ($124 million), along with an agreement to freeze an extra €70 million of previously announced spending.