The European Union has moved to freeze funding towards Turkey via the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) ad it was deemed the country was drifting away from European principles. European Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy & Enlargement Johannes Hahn stated that Turkey was moving in the opposite direction from Europe which was having a negative effect on the country’s prospects of joining the EU. Mr. Hahn stressed that the country had showed signs of backward steps before the failed military coup, adding that President Erdogan’s planned constitutional reforms and the widespread persecutions of dissenting voices and it constant aggression to EU member-states had exacerbated the negative in its prospects of admission into the EU . “Turkey is not moving towards the direction of Europe, but in the opposite way. We are legally bound to associate financial assistance with the progress each candidate country records”, he said, adding that Turkey is shifting against the standards of international law. It has not become clear which part of the funding process will be suspended yet and for how long. Turkey’s EU accession talks began in 2005 and involve the examination of 35 chapters on specific themes, but there has been little progress so far.