Despite Ankara’s wishes, the country’s recently adopted “domestic security package“ will likely not be seen as a good public relations move in the EU. “Unfortunately, we expect more criticism from the European Commission and from the European Parliament,“ Melih Özsöz, secretary-general of the Economic Development Foundation (IKV), Turkey's long standing pro-European think tank, told
Europolitics
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Adopted on 27 March by the ruling Conservative-Islamist AKP party, which holds absolute majority in the Turkish parliament in Ankara, and now becoming law,…
Amendments galore
The European Parliament’s annual reports on Turkey always attract large numbers of amendments, the Istanbul-based think tank IKV noted: 447 amendments, a total of 285 pages, almost 30 times longer than the original report drafted by Kati Piri (S&D). The Turkey report had 338 amendments in 2013 and 415 in 2012. This year, EU candidate Serbia comes a distant second with 222 proposed amendments. The high number reflects the controversial status of Turkey in the EP, with Greek MEPs leading with 120 amendments, IKV states. The vote is scheduled for 29 April.