13 Amendments of Arne LIETZ related to 2016/2308(INI)
Amendment 43 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 23 a (new)
Citation 23 a (new)
- whereas millions of Turks and people of Turkish extraction have been living in the EU Member States and contributing to their prosperity for decades,
Amendment 53 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Underlines that 2016 was a difficult year for Turkey’s population as a result of the continuing war in Syria, the high numbers of refugees, a string of heinous terror attacks, and a violent coup attempt in which 248 people were killed; reiterates its strong condemnation of the coup attempt of 15 July and expresses its solidarity with the people of Turkey; recognises the right and the responsibility of the Turkish government to take action in bringing the real perpetrators to justice;
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Stresses the strategic importance of good EU-Turkey relations for both sides; recognises that both Turkey and the EU have gone through their own internal transformation processes since the accession negotiations were opened in 2004; regrets that, owing to a lack of political will on the part of leading governments in the EU, the accession instruments have not been used to the fullest extent and that, over the years, Turkey’s full integration into the EU has lost public support on both sides; encourages Turkish and European civil society to continue their efforts to ensure that Turkey has a future in the EU; remains committed to cooperating and maintaining an open dialogue with the Turkish Government, in order to address common challenges; recommends that the Council urgently invite the Turkish Government to a summit to discuss the obvious crisis in EU-Turkey relations that we are faced with; is convinced that there should still be a place in the EU for a democratic Turkey which observes the rule of law;
Amendment 140 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Notes that measures undertaken following the declaration of the state of emergency have targeted alleged members/supporters of the so-called Gülen movement, dissent in general and political parties of the opposition in particular; strongly condemns the imprisonment of 13 MPs belonging to the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), including its co-chairs, and of 90 Kurdish municipal mayors; urges the Turkish Government to lift the state of emergency immediately; underlines that the reintroduction of the death penalty would violate Turkey’s international commitments and lead to an immediate end to the EU accession talks, and explicitly warns the Turkish Government not to exploit this issue for populist purposes;
Amendment 165 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Condemns strongly the violations of freedom of expression and the serious infringements of media freedom, including the disproportionate bannings of media sites and social media; notes with concern the closure of around 170 media outlets - including almost all Kurdish-language outlets - and the jailing of more than 150 journalists; recalls that a free and pluralistic press is an essential component of any democracy and urges the Turkish government to release all unlawfully arrested journalists immediately;
Amendment 167 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Condemns strongly the violations of freedom of expression and the serious infringements of media freedom, including the disproportionate bannings of media sites and social media; notes with concern the closure of around 170 media outlets - including almost all Kurdish-language outlets - and the jailing of more than 150 journalists; recalls that a free and pluralistic press is an essential componentthe lifeblood of any democracy and urges the Turkish government to release all journalists immediately;
Amendment 180 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Expresses its serious concern at the continuously deteriorating situation in south-east Turkey, especially in the areas where curfews were imposed, where some 2 000 people were reportedly killed in the context of security operations and an estimated half a million people became displaced in the period from July 2015 to December 2016; notes that local prosecutors have consistently refused to open investigations into the reported killings; is convinced that only a fair political settlement of the Kurdish question can bring sustainable stability and prosperity both to the area and to Turkey as a whole; notes that a series of laws have created an atmosphere of ‘systematic impunity’ for the security forces; regretcondemns the decision of the Turkish Parliament to waive the immunity of a large number of MPs unconstitutionally, paving the way for the arrests of opposition politicians;
Amendment 197 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Calls on Turkey to protect the rights of the most vulnerable groups and of persons belonging to minorities; regrets the ongoing discrimination against religious minorities, including Alevis and Christians; regrets that the LGBTI marches in Ankara and Istanbul were banned for the second consecutive year; is seriously concerned about gender-based violence, discrimination, hate speech against minorities, hate crime and violations of the human rights of ethnic and religious minorities and of LGBTI persons; calls on Turkey to harmonise its domestic legislation with the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention, which it ratified in 2014; welcomes the government’s national strategy and action plan for Roma and encourages the authorities to address key obstacles to the social inclusion of Roma;
Amendment 243 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Believes that strengthening trade relations could bring concrete benefits to citizens in Turkey and the EU, and therefore supports the Commission’s proposal to start negotiations on the upgrading of the Customs Union; reiterates that the EU is Turkey’s main trading partner and that two thirds of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Turkey comes from EU Member States; underlines, furthermore, the economic importance of Turkey as a growth market for the EU; considers the involvement of social partners in negotiations as crucial; calls on the Commission to include political benchmarks on human rights and fundamental freedoms in the upgraded Customs Union;
Amendment 265 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Notes that visa liberalisation is of crucial importantce for the Turkish population as well as for the millions of people with Turkish nationality or origins living in the EU and will enhance people- to-people contacts; encourages the Turkish Government to comply with the final outstanding criteria, including revision of its anti-terrorism legislation;
Amendment 279 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Calls on the Commission to take into account the latest developments in Turkey when conducting the mid-term review of the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) funds in 2017, and to temporarily suspend all pre-accession funds if Turkey no longer sufficiently complies with the EU’s Copenhagen criteria; calls on the Commission to use those funds to support Turkish civil society and to invest more in people-to-people; stresses that education and youth policy in particular have the potential to improve EU-Turkey relations in the long term and calls on the Commission to invest in exchange programmes between students, such as Erasmus+ for studentool pupils, creative workers in the cultural sector and civil society stakeholders;
Amendment 316 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Commends the engagement by the Turkish Government and local civil society organisations and the hospitality shown by the population in hosting around 3 million refugees; notes the EU-Turkey statement on migration, and urges the Member States to initiate the voluntary resettlement scheme for the most vulnerable refugees in Turkey; calls on the Commission to ensure long-term investment in both refugees and their host communities in Turkey; encourages the Turkish Government to grant work permits to all Syrian refugees; calls on Ankara to keep up its patrolling efforts in the Aegean and to implement fully the bilateral readmission agreements signed with Bulgaria and Greece;
Amendment 360 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19
Paragraph 19
19. Underlines that a settlement of the Cyprus problem would have a positive impact on the entire region, while first and foremost benefiting both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots; praises the leaders of the Greek and Turkish communities in Cyprus for having achieved major progress in the settlement talks; welcomes the exchange of preferred maps, thus far unprecedented, and the first international conference held with the guarantor powers; supports the settlement based on a bi- communal, bi-zonal federation with political equality, a single international legal personality, single sovereignty and single citizenship with political equality between the two communities, in line with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and on the basis of respect for the principles on which the Union is founded; welcomes the intensified engagement by the parties to achieve the settlement of the Cyprus problem; expects Turkey, as one of the guarantor powers, to show active support for the negotiations, and reiterates that Turkey’s commitment and contribution to a comprehensive settlement remain crucial; praises the important work of the Committee on Missing Persons (CMP), and calls on Turkey to allow access to all relevant sites and to assist the CMP by providing information from its military archives;