EU Commission: Key findings of the 2021 Report on Turkey | Oct. 19, 2021 |

The fundamentals of the accession process

There are serious deficiencies in the functioning of Turkey's democratic institutions. Democratic backsliding continued during the reporting period. Structural deficiencies of the presidential system remained in place. Key recommendations of the Council of Europe and its bodies remain to be addressed. The Parliament continued to lack the necessary means to hold the government accountable. The constitutional architecture continued to centralise powers at the level of the Presidency without ensuring a sound and effective separation of powers between the executive, legislative and the judiciary. In the absence of an effective checks and balances mechanism, the democratic accountability of the executive branch remains limited to elections.

The Donbas: Europe's last war

'Sapere aude'