Douglas Carswell – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Carswell on 2016-04-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the Government’s policy is on Turkey’s accession to the EU.

Mr David Lidington

The UK supports Turkey’s EU accession process, which remains the most effective mechanism for continuing reform in Turkey. Turkey’s accession itself is not on the cards for many years to come. Turkey first applied for associate membership of the EEC in 1959, and there remains a very significant amount of detailed work to do before Turkey is ready to join the EU including economic reforms. Every Member State has a veto at every stage. For the UK, the EU Act 2011 requires any Accession Treaty admitting a candidate country to membership to be ratified by Act of Parliament.