Turkey, EU should Step up Efforts for Visa Liberalization: EU Envoy

“We all know that the current situation isn’t sustainable. The consulates are over flown with Turkish visa demands. People have to wait for months, even for a year, sometimes to get a visa appointment. This is not sustainable. And this is not acceptable in the strategic relations we want to have with Turkey. It's a shame. It's a shame for all of us,” EU Ambassador to Turkey Thomas Ossowski told a group of journalists during a visit to Brussels last week.

Turkey and the EU had launched talks for granting visa liberalization to the Turkish nationals in 2016 but they could not be accomplished as the former fulfilled 66 benchmarks out of 72. Many Turks have to wait months to get a visa appointment from the consulates and private firms which has turned into a growing problem between Turkey and EU countries.

“So we have to start the visa liberalization process again. We came now with a very honest offer to the Turkish government. Please let's start the talks again,” the ambassador said, suggesting to start working on the remaining six benchmarks, including an amendment on anti-terror law, data protection, cooperation with Europol and others.

“You know Turkey is the only candidate country of the European Union which has no visa free travel. Even Kosovo has it which is not an official candidate country and not recognized by Spain, by Greece, by Slovakia and by two more other member states,” he said.

“And Kosovo is a fragile young state, but Turkey is a strong state with a strong bureaucracy. How can it be that Kosovo people can travel visa-free to the European Union and Turks not?” he asked.

The people of Ukraine, which is at war, and of Georgia with whom the EU is having difficulties now are having visa-free travel right, Ossowski recalled, stressing, “To make it worse, Venezuela, which is certainly not a model country in this world, has visa free travel with the European Union and the Schengen states. Colombia, which is still a country with a lot of drug issues, has visa free travel with the European Union. How can it be that Turkey as a strategic partner, as a NATO ally, as a very important NATO ally, has no visa free travel?”

This issue needs to be addressed urgently, but the political will on both sides is needed to advance, the envoy underlined, saying, “Now we have renewed this offer. Let's work on the remaining benchmarks. It is not sustainable what we have right now. We need visa free travel between the European Union and Turkey.”

There are around four million green passport holders in Turkey who enjoy visa-free travel to the Schengen area, but this creates inequality, the EU envoy also recalled.

Ambassador Ossowski noted that he brought this issue to the attention of the Turkish Foreign Ministry with hopes that technical talks may resume in September this year.

Highlighting that he will assume the role of German envoy to the EU delegation in Brussels in a few months, Ossowski stated that he will continue facilitating these talks between Ankara and Brussels in his new capacity.

 EU trade commissioner to visit Turkey

Regarding the modernization of the customs union between Turkey and the EU, the ambassador announced that EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic will visit Turkey in July to further advance negotiations.

“We will remove further trade irritants, in the current customs union with the European Union and Turkey. And then from there on, I think we have a steppingstone to say ‘Now let's engage on a modernization of the customs union’. So, I'm also quite optimistic about that. But here again it will also take some commitment on the Turkish side. It really takes two to tango,” he stressed.

On a question about current political developments in Turkey following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, the ambassador admitted that these developments had an impact on the reengagement agenda of the EU.

“The arrest of Mayor İmamoğlu, the arrest of so many other people, the fact that students have been arrested after demonstrating and have spent two or three months in prison. All this is not good,” he said, recalling that both member states and candidate countries must stick to their commitments.

The EU is conveying its messages on democracy and rule of law issues, the ambassador stated, saying, “So here we are in, of course, a critical discussion with Turkey. But this doesn’t lead us to say now we stop the reengagement. No, we continue. We continue the reengagement because strategically, Turkey and the European Union, we are partners by destiny.”

Source: HDN