© EPAGerman Chancellor Merkel has been a vocal supporter of cutting funds to Turkey in recent months
Comment: That's code for 'the EU will reduce its bribes for Turkey joining the EU because Turkey isn't sufficiently vassal-compliant'.
The bloc will shrink the so-called "pre-accession funds" for Turkey by 105m euros ($124m) and suspend an additional 70m euros in the 2018 budget, the statement said on Saturday.
Ankara is entitled to receive 4.45 billion euros from the EU between 2014 and 2020 in the framework of the bloc's "Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance".
The Council of the EU and the EP, the two legislative institutions of the bloc, still need to formally approve the new budget.
"Concerning Turkey, MEPs made sure to cut pre-accession funds by €105 million (with a further €70 million in commitments put in reserve), as they consider the deteriorating situation in relation to democracy, rule of law and human rights worrying," the statement by the EP said, referring to its members as MEPs.
Comment: As IF 'democracy, the rule of law and human rights' are any better in the EU!!! Elections are RIGGED in the EU, for cripes' sake! And what 'rule of law?! There's clearly one rule for the elites, and one for the masses! And don't even get us started on 'human rights'; EU elites wouldn't know what it is to be human, much less the moral difference between right and wrong...
Many of the EU member states have been in condemnation of the Turkish government's arrests and purges of tens of thousands of people after a failed coup attempt in July 2016.
Comment: ...and didn't say squat about the violent NATO/Deep State attempted coup that massacred hundreds of ordinary Turks, and sought to assassinate Erdogan.
Local and international rights groups have accused the government of using the coup attempt as a pretext to silence opposition in the country.
Comment: What do you mean, pre-text!?! Are these loons seriously so conspirationist that they're suggesting, in all seriousness, that Erdogan staged the coup himself?!?!?!
The government has said that the purges and detentions aimed to remove from state institutions and other parts of society the supporters of Fethullah Gulen, a US-based, self-exiled religious leader on whom Ankara blames the attempted coup.
"For those ... that depart from our democratic standards and breach fundamental rights, we have sent a clear message that the money that the EU provides cannot come without strings attached," MEP Siegfred Muresan the rapporteur for the 2018 general budget, told reporters after the announcement of the deal.
Read the rest here
Some EU states have been operating in Syria, which is illegal.
So all this bullsh*t about human rights, rule of law, etc, what a joke.