Budget shows Turkish membership off EU's radar screen until 2020

Turkish membership in the European Union is off the bloc's radar screen for the next decade, its decision not to include Turkey in the EU's budget for 2014-2020 appears to show. "Including Turkey in the 2014-2020 budget would have meant Turkey would be an EU member within this period," said Demir Murat Seyrek, an EU analyst for Brussels-based Global Communications. "This is the last message French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel would like to give." Member states' opposition to Turkey's joining the bloc caused the European Commission, tasked with preparing the budget, to rebuff Ankara's demands to have Turkey included in the EU's 2014-2020 financial considerations. "If this proposal is adopted, this will close the way to add an additional issue to the budget, making it difficult to include Turkey during the course of the next eight years," Seyrek said. This absence from the budget doesn't mean it's impossible for Turkey to join the EU within the next decade, he added. "Saying yes to Turkey's membership is, after all, a political decision," he said. "The fact that it is absent in the budget will not prevent Turkey from becoming a member."