EU’s Juncker wants to shift Turkey membership funds to bolster judiciary

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker has said he wants some of the funds earmarked for Turkey’s EU membership process to be shifted to bolster the judiciary. He said Wednesday that the EU is not cutting the funds budgeted for Turkey. “But we are reorienting them into the fields of judiciary, civil society, and things like that,” AP quoted Juncker as saying. EU leaders have ordered the commission to look at ways to put Turkey’s accession funds to better use in response to the Turkish government’s crackdown on human rights following a failed military coup last year. Juncker said the EU is not abandoning its membership talks with Ankara, adding that “We want Turkey to re-become European.”