Turkey: Statement by the Spokesperson on media reporting on IPA cuts

19.01.2020
Brussels

High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell did not send a letter addressed to the European Parliament allegedly announcing further cuts of IPA funding to Turkey. Recent reporting by some media refers in fact to a reply to a question of a Member of the European Parliament, submitted to the Commission in October 2019.

All media interpretations linking the facts and figures mentioned in the parliamentary reply to the current events or even to today’s Libya conference are completely wrong and misleading. The reduction in IPA funding for Turkey started in 2017. The last decision on this was taken by the Foreign Affairs Council on 15 October last year, which endorsed the Commission’s proposal to reduce the pre-accession assistance to Turkey for 2020.

There is no new or recent decision by the EU budgetary authority on pre-accession reorientation, other than the decisions taken last year and which have been announced and clarified already on numerous occasions

Peter Stano
Lead Spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
+32 (0)460 75 45 53