Turkey absent from new EU budget, pushing back accession to 2020 at the earliest

The proposed European Union budget for 2014-2020 makes no mention of Turkey, meaning that Ankara will have to wait until at least 2020 to enter the EU. In the budget, unveiled on Wednesday in Brussels by Jose Manuel Barroso, European policymakers propose new taxes on citizens and companies and a tightening of belts across the EU, seeking to respond to gaping public debts ravaging the bloc's southern flank. The new budget, however, makes no mention of Turkey, implying that the EU-aspirant country will not be accepted until at least 2020. The 1.025 billion euro budget proposed by the European Commission also urges the introduction of an EU-wide sales tax and a new financial services tax.