Brexit; Turkish Delight

Source;  Vote leave Take Control.

• David Cameron strongly supports Turkish accession. In 2010, Cameron said he was ‘angry’ at the slow pace of Turkish accession, that he was the ‘strongest possible advocate for EU membership’ for Turkey, and that ‘I want us to pave the road from Ankara to Brussels’ (Prime Minister’s Office, 27 July 2010, link). In 2014, he said that: ‘In terms of Turkish membership of the EU, I very much support that. That’s a longstanding position of British foreign policy which I support’ (Daily Telegraph, 9 December 2014, link).[pullquote]Huffington Post 4.5.16: David Cameron today claimed Turkey would not join the EU “for decades” as he urged voters not to think about the issue when they vote in the upcoming referendum.  Appearing before a committee of senior MPs this afternoon, the Prime Minister sought to quash fears that 75million citizens of the country would soon acquire the right to live and work in the UK.[/pullquote]

• The British public will not get a vote on the accession of Turkey to the EU. The European Union Act 2011 allows the Government to ratify EU accession treaties without a referendum (European Union Act 2011, s. 4(4)(c), link). There was no referendum on the accession of Croatia to the EU in 2013 (European Union (Croatian Accession and Irish Protocol) Act 2013, s. 1, link).
• Turkey is due to join the EU in the next few years, having already signed a deal with the EU to prepare for accession (European Commission, March 2016, link).
• It is set to receive over £1 billion of UK funds to help prepare it for membership (Vote Leave, 27 April 2016, link).
• The new European Council building contains chairs and building space for Turkey when it joins (Daily Mail, May 2016,link).