Brussels, 22/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - MEPs on the European Parliament's civil liberties, justice and home affairs committee were very reserved on Thursday 21 April about the intermediary assessment made to them by the European Commission on the work currently under way in preparation for visa liberalisation for Turkey at the end of June.
In a debate on the subject, some MEPs even challenged what one described as the over-optimistic tone used by the Commission in describing progress by Turkey. Asked to assess how far Ankara has got on the 72 criteria demanded by the EU to allow Turkish passport-holders to travel without a visa in the Schengen Area for up to three months, Marta Cygan of the European Commission's Directorate General for Migration and Home Affairs said that the Turkish authorities had made real progress. She said the Turks had clearly accelerated the reforms and 35 of the criteria had now been entirely or almost entirely met. She added that turkey had implemented the EU's demands as a whole in a proactive manner.
The Commission pointed out that the visa dialogue had started in December 2013 in parallel to the discussion about the EU-Turkey readmission agreement on illegal Turkish and other non-EU immigrants from the EU. The two measures were initially due to apply in 2017, but the two last EU-Turkey summits on halting the flow of refugees brought the timing forward. Turkey is due to apply the readmission agreement from 1 June onwards. The Commission said there was already a clear commitment by Turkey to start applying the agreement on 1 June.
In terms of the criteria themselves, Cygan said there had been progress on the security of documents, systematic reporting to Europol of falsified documents, and “relatively soli”' implementation of measures for integrated border management. The Turkish authorities have started to properly notify the EU of illegal sailings of refugees in the direction o f Europe, explained the Commission's representative.
The representative said that Turkey now had asylum legislation and a body responsible for deciding on the status of refugees. Ankara has committed to the fight against human trafficking and ratified a series of international protocols in this connection. Cygan expressed a few concerns - Turkey has not yet issued biometrical documents with digital prints of their holders or started to share more information with member states' security services. Data protection legislation is not yet fully up to European standards. On Wednesday 20 April, European Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos suggested that the Commission could unveil draft visa-free travel legislation for Turkey on 4 May.
“I am quite astonished by this language”, reacted Barbara Spinelli (GUE/NGL, Italy), asking whether the positive report was really due to democratic progress or rather the fact that Turkey is closing its borders to the EU. Marie-Christine Vergiat (GUE/NGL, France) said the Commission must not lose sight of the recently adopted report by the EP's plenary, which was rather critical of changes in Turkey vis-à-vis respect for human rights (see EUROPE 11532).
French socialist Sylvie Guillaume said that while progress had been noted on the ground by an EP delegation in mid-February, particularly in refugee camps, the situation facing Syrian refugees remained problematic in towns and cities, where most of them are located. She hoped the Commission would not overestimate the progress in Turkey listed in the MEPs' report.
Ditch Liberal MEP Sophie in't Veld said the EU was selling itself somewhat to Turkey and asked for the criteria not to be watered down. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)