Europees Parlement akkoord met onderhandelingen met Turkije (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Members of the European Parliament have voted in favour of Turkey joining the EU by 407 to 262 in a controversial secret ballot, with 29 abstentions.

By calling for a beginning to negotiations "without due delay", MEPs meeting in Strasbourg sent a strong message to EU leaders who will gather in Brussels on Thursday(16 December) to decide Turkey's EU future.

However, MEPs noted that problems still remain with Turkey's EU bid, including concerns over human rights, the role of the army, religious freedoms and relations with Cyprus.

And, in the case of "serious breaches of the political criteria", negotiations should be suspended, argued Parliamentarians.

The Liberals, Greens and Socialists were all broadly in favour of Turkey, while most of the centre-right European People's Party as well as far-right members voted against opening negotiations.

Secret ballot

The vote was dominated by controversy over the nature of the ballot. The EPP called for a secret ballot.

This meant that any divisions in the group would be covered up.

The move was roundly criticised by the Socialists, Liberals and Greens but the 147 signatures needed to force a secret ballot were easily obtained by the EPP with its 268 MEPs.

The Green group staged a protest at the secret ballot, holding up placards saying "yes" in all EU languages as well as Turkish.

And the leader of the Group, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, said, "we were not susceptible to the lunacy of the EPP and their confusion of freedom of expression with secrecy".

"This vote should be a lesson in democracy for those who fear transparency and attempt to manipulate political outcomes through backroom deals".

But some MEPs from the centre-right group remained defiant.

Francoise Grossetete, a French MEP from the EPP issued a statement saying, "it is in my view incomprehensible to integrate a country that is not situated in Europe, which does not even share the same values as us and that is currently militarily occupying another member state and not recognising it, the Republic of Cyprus".