BERLIN (Sputnik) — Turkey does not stand a chance of becoming an EU member any time soon, the chairman of Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU) faction in the European Parliament said Saturday.
"We need separate deals with Turkey to move ahead on practical issues, on daily life, economy, culture, student exchanges. In our view, this would make more sense than EU membership, which is not happening," Manfred Weber told a German newspaper, the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung.
A lot has changed in the past year and a half, Weber continued.
"We will clearly be able to tackle the issue [refugee inflows] if needed without the assistance of Turkish government. Turkey needs Europe more than the other way round," he added.
The European Parliament passed a resolution on Thursday urging Brussels to put Turkey’s EU accession bid on ice until its government stopped the crackdown on dissent it launched in the aftermath of the failed July coup.