The European Parliament has voted to freeze talks on Turkey’s joining the EU. Turkey says this undermines the EU’s core values.

A clear statement the European Parliament: 479 votes in favour of freezing Turkey’s EU accession process. The Turkish government says the vote is contrary to European values.

“The vote is null and void for us. This decision lacks vision, and when we look at its goals and its language, we do not take this decision seriously,” said Omer Celik, Turkey’s EU Affair Ministers.

In Turkey, 40,000 people have been arrested and more than 130,000 dismissed from public sector jobs in the wake of the coup; the MEPs say this shows a disregard for democratic values. They are also concerned about suggestions by the Turkish government that they want to reintroduce the death penalty.

In the debate ahead of the vote, the EU’s foreign policy chief had called on the MEPs not to vote to freeze the talks.

“If the accession process came to an end, I believe we would both find ourselves in a lose-lose scenario. Europe would lose an important channel for dialogue and leverage with Turkey. Turkey would lose a lot,” said Federica Mogherini, EU Foreign Policy Chief.

The EU is relying on Turkey to standby a deal on the migration crisis in the Mediterranean, which has greatly reduced the number of people entering Europe. But for the MEPs, the risk of that deal failing did not stop them from voting to end accession talks.

"For far too long we have dishonestly dangled the prospect of EU membership in front of Turkey," said Syed Kamall, leader of the ECR Group.

“Continuing the illusion of accession talks with the regime that becomes more and more authoritarian; I think that we are losing credibility to do so,” said Guy Verhofstadt, leader of ALDE Party.

The European parliament’s vote is non-binding, but it does not automatically mean the talks will be frozen; the European Commission and Council would have to take that step.

If they are suspended though questions will be asked about what is going to happen to the more than 2.5 billion dollars of EU money left in the pot for Turkey until 2020 as an EU candidate country. Could the European Union use that money as a bargaining chip in future negotiations? The parliament’s resolution does not specify a course of action on those finances.