On Thursday 8 February, the European Commission said that its First Vice-President Frans Timmermans met Turkey's ambassador to the EU, Faruk Kaymakcı, on Wednesday 7 February to discuss the liberalisation of visas.
Turkey still needs to fulfil seven criteria in order to be able to hope to obtain this visa liberalisation scheme – which had been promised it by the 28 EU member states during the design of the EU-Turkey agreement of March 2016 to contain the arrivals of migrants in Greece. This commitment then suffered a setback in the aftermath of the attempted coup in July 2016.
These seven criteria have not yet been fulfilled. They are particularly linked to cooperation with Europol on counter-terrorism legislation. There are also "political elements" in this decision to grant visa liberalisation, a Commission source stated.
On 7 February, a spokesperson for Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan declared that Turkey had fulfilled all the conditions (in other words, the 72 criteria required) which focus on the management of migration or the security of documents. The subject is expected to be raised in Varna, Bulgaria, on 26 March during the EU-Turkey summit.
On 3 February, as part of a meeting with press, the ambassador had said he was optimistic about the fact that the visa liberalisation issue could progress this year (see EUROPE 11954). (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)