“I see declarations of my colleagues about Turkey not belonging to the European Union. I believe we shouldn’t be hypocrites, if it is so, let’s tell them. But we continue the negotiations and I would also say for objectivity that Turkey is doing a lot for Western civilization as a member of NATO in the security aspect,” said MEP Eduard Kukan. The politician believes the decision of the EU won’t backfire in the field of refugee policy, currently Turkey is home to 2.5 million immigrants. Kukan thinks that it is in the country’s interest to receive funding from the European Union due to immigration policies.
“Nowadays nobody is really expecting Turkey to become a full-fledged member of the European Union. Of course the country is our important partner from the viewpoint of solving the immigration crisis, which however costs us billions and we need to pay Turkey for maintaining the camps,” pointed out MEP Monika Beňová. While the European contribution to Turkish camps is reaching 4.5 billion euros, in comparison the finances for European integration are negligible.
