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Southeast Europe
October 27, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 13
The Belgrade election must take place by spring 2018, but there is speculation that a snap general elec- tion could be called for as early as December, with December 24 mooted as a possible election date.
If a general election is called, it is not expected to affect the political landscape in Serbia, where
MEPs and Berlin squeeze Turkey’s financing on two fronts
bne IntelliNews
Turkey appears to be facing two worrying squeezes on financing with MEPs having proposed on October 25 to cut Ankara’s EU pre-accession funds and Berlin reportedly working actively to
cut funding from Germany’s state-owned KfW development bank, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
MEPs have recommended pre-accession
monies for Turkey be reduced by €50mn with
a further €30mn put in reserve in view “of the worrying deterioration of the situation as regards democracy, rule of law and human rights”, while, according to Bloomberg, those same concerns have led the German government to demand
the financing institutions tighten their stance towards Turkey. The news service quoted officials as saying the three banks had imposed tighter restrictions, though not a formal freeze on funding, while some German commercial banks were reviewing their exposure to Turkey.
The situation will be watched closely by Ankara
the weak and disunited opposition will help the SNS to win another four years in power, giving the party an extra two years on top of its current mandate. The opposition signally failed to unite behind a single candidate ahead of the April 2017 presidential election, leaving the field clear for Vucic.
Central office of German development bank KfW in Frankfurt.
given that Germany is Turkey’s largest economic partner by a long way. The two countries’ bilateral trade amounted to more than $36bn last year.
“Turkey is not respecting freedom of speech, freedom of expression, human rights and is drifting further away from European democratic standards. We cannot pretend we don’t see that,” centre-right MEP Siegfried Muresan, who led the budget discussions, told Reuters.
He added that the pre-accession funding cuts would affect only money earmarked for political reforms, not funds for infrastructure and farming.
“We asked the European Commission to make recommendations on changing and reducing the pre-accession aid in a responsible way,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters on October 19 after the first day of an EU summit.
She described the development of democratic values and the situation in Turkey as “very negative”.