Not a single voter from the EU’s 28 member states – which have a total population of 508 million – has yet to vote in favour of Turkish membership.
But MEPs voted 375 – 133 to back the initiative by President of Cyprus Nicos Anastasiades, who asked the Dutch EU Presidency to add Turkish to the bloc’s 24 official languages in order to boost attempts to reach a reunification agreement on the Mediterranean island.
The move, expected to add £25m to the EU’s annual budget, has infuriated critics who last night said it was further proof that Turkey’s accession to the EU was “all but guaranteed”.
“This is proof that Turkey becoming an EU member state is all but a done deal,” said Ukip migration spokesman Steven Woolfe.
All of the other 24 ‘official and working’ languages are tied to states which are full members of the European Union.
But although Welsh and Catalan are not even recognised as official languages, Turkish has now been added.
The first official languages of what was then the European Community were Dutch, French, German, and Italian.
Since then, as more countries have become part of the EU, the number of official and working languages has increased. However, there are fewer official languages than Member States, as some share common languages.
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