German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday she would seek an end to Turkey's membership talks with the European Union in an apparent shift of her position during a televised debate weeks before a German election. "I'll speak to my [EU] colleagues to see if we can reach a joint position on this so that we can end these accession talks," Merkel added. "If I become German chancellor, if the people of this country give me a mandate, then I will propose to the European Council that we end the membership talks with Turkey," Schulz said. Merkel's conservative party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has long opposed Turkish membership in the European Union. But the green light for membership talks was given months before Merkel became chancellor in 2005 and she has always said that she will respect that decision, referring to the negotiations as "open ended".

Source: CBC News September 03, 2017 22:30 UTC