TURKEY dismissed a vote by MEPs to suspend EU membership talks as “null and void” yesterday.

The EU Parliament voted 479-37 with 107 abstentions for a non-binding resolution “to initiate a temporary freeze” on talks with Ankara until “disproportionate measures under the state of emergency in Turkey are lifted.”

Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group leader Guy Verhofstadt said: “By continuing the illusion of accession talks with an increasingly authoritarian regime, the EU is losing credibility, is fooling our citizens, and also betraying those Turkish citizens who look to Europe as their future.”