Brussels, 12/05/2016 (Agence Europe) - The EU/Turkey agreement "will not take place" if Ankara does not meet the European Commission criteria on visa liberalisation, particularly criteria (65), calling on Turkey to align its anti-terrorist legislation on European standards.
This warning was made on Thursday 12 May in Berlin by the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker. Speaking at a press briefing (see EUROPE 11546), Mr Juncker explained "We have set out criteria for visa liberalisation. There are 72 of them and number 65 says that the Turkish government must revise its anti-terrorist laws". In a reference to the recent departure of Ahmet Davutoglu from the Turkish government, Mr Juncker added "We are counting on this, we agreed with the Turkish government and the departure of the Prime Minister cannot be used to ignore the agreements between the EU and Turkey".
In reply to criticism made by the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, over European requirements in the terrorism field (see EUROPE 11547), the President of the Commission also affirmed that "If Mr Erdogan denies Turkish citizens from being allowed to travel freely in Europe, he will have to explain that to the Turkish people. This will not be my problem, it will be his".
On Wednesday 11 May in Strasbourg, the European Commissioner for Migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, had a meeting with the Turkish Minister for European Affairs, Volkan Bozkir, as part of the debate on visas with MEPs. During this debate and after the meeting with the Turkish minister, he said that he was confident that Turkey would be able to meet all the required criteria within the given deadline, by the end of June, as agreed in the so-called "declaration" between the EU and Turkey on 18 March (see EUROPE 11515).
Mr Avramopoulos informed MEPs that "I am confident that this declaration will be respected and that everything will be done by June". He also explained why, from a European point of view, it was important to align Turkish standards on those of the Community and said that this alignment would facilitate better cooperation and enhance security as well as other aspects too. He also argued that because Turkey had been the subject of a waive of attacks, cooperation with the European police cooperation agency (Europol), which is one of the required criteria, was "indispensable".
According to one European source, contacts between Turkey and the EU have not been broken off over this question relating to criteria 65, calling on Turkey to align its anti-terrorist legislation on European standards. The Commission believes that it is still "feasible" for a visa free system in Turkey to be obtained by the end of June for short stay travel. This source said that the criteria that need to be met have not changed since 2013 and that they needed to interpret the declarations made by President Erdogan, somewhat prudently.
The EP still appears somewhat reticent with regard to validating the visa free system for Turkey in the given timeframe (see EUROPE 11548). The President of the EP, Martin Schulz, pointed this out on Wednesday 11 May at the end of his meeting with Mr Bozkir. His institution believes that Turkey is not yet ready to benefit from a visa free system because it has not yet fulfilled the required criteria. In this connection, Mr Schulz did not therefore send on the visa liberalisation proposal to the competent committees on 4 May.
In his meeting with Mr Schulz, Mr Bozkir said that the process is going through a "very dangerous time". He also warned that "Turkish anti-terrorist law complies with European standards and modifying it is completely impossible". He insisted on the fact that his country had to tackle the terrorism threat from the Kurdish PKK party and that has recently suffered from at least five suicide attacks.
No decisions from member states on 20 May On Friday 20 May during the Justice and Home Affairs Council, the member states are expected to discuss the Commission's proposal of 4 May on the visa waiver for Turkey. The discussion, however, is expected to be more transversal on the visa exemption regimes recently granted to several countries such as Kosovo (see EUROPE 11546) and Ukraine (see EUROPE 11536) and not just Turkey, explained one source. No decision is expected to be adopted on Turkey. The Council work has just started. On Wednesday, speaking on behalf of the Dutch Presidency of the Council, Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, informed MEPs in no uncertain terms that there was "still a lot of work to do" in Turkey before the Council could give a positive decision on this system.
During the Justice and Home Affairs Council, ministers may, possibly, agree on a general approach on the visa waiver suspension mechanism in cases of abuse, even though this still needs to be confirmed. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)