Turkey's EU Candidacy Must Be Suspended if No Change, EU Lawmakers Say

After years of stalemate on Turkey's bid to join the world's biggest trading bloc, negotiations launched in 2005 have come to a halt. (Reuters)
After years of stalemate on Turkey's bid to join the world's biggest trading bloc, negotiations launched in 2005 have come to a halt. (Reuters)
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Turkey's EU Candidacy Must Be Suspended if No Change, EU Lawmakers Say

After years of stalemate on Turkey's bid to join the world's biggest trading bloc, negotiations launched in 2005 have come to a halt. (Reuters)
After years of stalemate on Turkey's bid to join the world's biggest trading bloc, negotiations launched in 2005 have come to a halt. (Reuters)

Turkey's membership negotiations to join the European Union should be formally suspended if Ankara continues on its autocratic track, EU lawmakers said on Friday, saying a decision was urgent as basic freedoms in the country are curtailed.

Lawmakers in the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee voted 49 in favor, four against and with 14 abstentions on their report on Turkey's EU candidacy, which now goes to the full plenary next month and, if accepted, becomes the parliament's official position.

After years of stalemate on Turkey's bid to join the world's biggest trading bloc, negotiations launched in 2005 have come to a halt, although they are not officially suspended.

EU governments say President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's crackdown on dissidents, and his increasingly autocratic rule with sweeping presidential powers lacking checks and balances, have taken the country on a path away from the bloc.

Turkey's hydrocarbon exploration of contested waters in the eastern Mediterranean has also angered EU leaders. Erdogan, whose government has launched what diplomats say is a charm offensive this year to seek better ties, has said he will walk away from EU membership talks if there is no progress.

"This report is probably the toughest ever in its criticism towards the situation in Turkey," said Nacho Sanchez, a center-left Spanish EU lawmaker who led parliamentary discussions.

"It reflects all that has unfortunately happened in the country in the last two years, in particular in the fields of human rights and rule of law," he said.

In Erdogan's early days as prime minister in 2003, Turkey's EU candidacy gathered pace as his government brought stability, attracted foreign investment and outlawed the death penalty in 2004, a central demand of EU foreign policy.

EU officials and diplomats now say that Turkey no longer meets the democratic criteria to be considered a candidate, let alone a full member, for the EU, a club of democratic countries who aim to coordinate policy focused on human rights.

In the Foreign Affairs Committee report, EU lawmakers said the formal suspension of EU membership talks should take place, followed by a review, in order to consider other ways to maintain close ties with Turkey.

The European Union is Turkey's biggest foreign investor and biggest trading partner, while Turkey shares a border with Iraq, Syria and with Russia in the Black Sea.

The EU lawmakers' vote took place on Thursday. The results were announced on Friday.



Russian Attack Kills 3 in Ukraine’s City of Dnipro, Governor Says

 A firefighter works at the site of a household item shopping mall which was hit by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the city of Kamianske, Dnipro region, Ukraine July 26, 2025. (Reuters)
A firefighter works at the site of a household item shopping mall which was hit by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the city of Kamianske, Dnipro region, Ukraine July 26, 2025. (Reuters)
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Russian Attack Kills 3 in Ukraine’s City of Dnipro, Governor Says

 A firefighter works at the site of a household item shopping mall which was hit by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the city of Kamianske, Dnipro region, Ukraine July 26, 2025. (Reuters)
A firefighter works at the site of a household item shopping mall which was hit by a Russian missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the city of Kamianske, Dnipro region, Ukraine July 26, 2025. (Reuters)

Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles in an overnight attack that killed three people in Ukraine's Dnipro and the nearby region on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said.

Moscow's troops launched 235 drones and 27 missiles, damaging residential and commercial buildings and causing fires, the Ukrainian Air Force said. It said in a statement that 10 missiles and 25 attack drones hit nine sites. The rest of the drones and missiles were brought down, the Air Force said.

"A terrible night. A massive combined attack on the region," Serhiy Lysak, the Dnipropetrovsk regional governor, said on the Telegram app.

He said three people were killed in the attacks and six others wounded in the city of Dnipro and the nearby region.

Lysak posted pictures showing firefighters battling fires, a residential building with smashed windows, and charred cars.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy vowed retaliatory strikes.

"Russian military enterprises, Russian logistics, and Russian airports should feel that Russia’s own war is now hitting them back with real consequences," Zelenskiy said on the Telegram app.

Ukraine's attacks on Russia have heated up in recent months, with Moscow and Kyiv exchanging swarms of drones and fierce fighting raging along more than 1,000 kilometers of the frontline.