Erdogan: Kan folkomrösta om att avbryta EU-försök

Turkey's application to accede to the European Economic Community, the predecessor of the European Union (EU), was made on 14 April 1987. Turkey has been an associate member since 1963. After the ten founding members, Turkey was one of the first countries to become a member of the Council of Europe in 1949, and was also a founding member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1961, and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in 1973. The country has also been an associate member of the Western European Union from 1992 to its end in 2011, and is a part of the "Western Europe" branch of the Western European and Others Group (WEOG) at the United Nations. Turkey signed a Customs Union agreement with the EU in 1995 and was officially recognised as a candidate for full membership on 12 December 1999, at the Helsinki summit of the European Council. Negotiations were started on 3 October 2005 and out of 35 Chapters necessary to complete the accession process, 16 have been opened and one has been closed. The membership bid is a controversial topic of the ongoing enlargement of the European Union. Turkey has also been engaged in a visa liberalisation dialogue with the EU including a "Roadmap towards a visa-free regime". Provided Turkey meets the final five conditions agreed with the EU, it will be granted visa-free travel to the Schengen Area. On 24 November 2016 the European Parliament voted to suspend accession negotiations with Turkey over human rights and rule of law concerns, however this decision is not binding. On 13 December, the European Council (comprising the heads of state or government of the member states) resolved that it would open no new areas in Turkey's membership talks in the "prevailing circumstances", as Turkey’s path toward autocratic rule makes progress on EU accession impossible.