Turkey will not be a member of the European Union in five years’ time, said Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commission vice-president for the euro and social dialogue.

Speaking at a POLITICO event in Brussels on Wednesday, he said while the Commission has intensified the talks with Turkey recently in an attempt to slow the flow of refugees coming to Europe, “the process to join [the EU] is a very complex one, and many conditions must be met … I do not see that happening in the foreseeable future, definitely not for the next five years.”

Dombrovskis also pointed out that some countries had shown interest to join the eurozone — for instance, Bulgaria, Romania and the Czech Republic — but there was no plan for enlargement in the next three years.

“The Commission is not excluding any future enlargement” of the eurozone, he said. “But it’s a difficult process, and it takes time.”

Meanwhile, he dodged a question on the possibility of the eurozone shrinking.