Turkey: Readmission Agreement and Visa Liberalisation Dialogue

16 December 2013
by eub2 -- last modified 16 December 2013

Cecilia Malmström, the EU's Commissioner for Home Affairs has signed, with the Turkish Minister of Interior Muammer Güler, the EU-Turkey readmission agreement, and initiated, jointly with the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmet Davutoglu, the EU-Turkey Visa liberalisation dialogue.

The main objective of the EU-Turkey readmission agreement is to establish, on the basis of reciprocity, procedures for the rapid and orderly readmission, by each side, of people who entered or are residing on the territory of the other side 'in an irregular manner'.

The agreement includes provisions related both to the readmission of nationals of the EU Member States and Turkey, and to the readmission of any other persons (including third country nationals and stateless persons) that entered into, or stayed on, the territory of either sides directly arriving from the territory of the other side.

The provisions of the agreement related to the readmission of nationals of both sides, and those related to the readmission of stateless persons and nationals from third countries with which Turkey has concluded bilateral treaties or arrangements on readmission, will enter into force on the first day of the second month following the date on which the EU and Turkey notify each other that their respective ratification procedures have been completed.

The provisions related to the readmission of any other third country nationals, instead, will enter into force only three years later.

The agreement will now be sent to the Council of the European Union, to the European Parliament, and to the Turkish Grand National Assembly for ratification.

The aim of the EU-Turkey visa liberalisation dialogue is to make progress towards the elimination of the visa obligation currently imposed on the Turkish citizens travelling to the Schengen area for a short term visit.

The dialogue will essentially consist of a screening of the Turkish legislation and administrative practices, which will be carried out by the Commission on the basis of a document, elaborated by the latter, called "Roadmap towards the visa-free regime with Turkey".

This document lists the requirements which should be fulfilled by Turkey to allow the Commission to present a proposal based on solid grounds to the Council and the Parliament to amend EC Regulation 539/2001, listing the third countries whose nationals must be in possession of visas when crossing the external borders and those whose nationals are exempt from that requirement, so as to move Turkey from its negative to the positive list.

Among the requirements included in the Roadmap many refer, inter alia, to the need to implement in a full and effective manner the readmission agreement, to manage the borders and the visa policy in such a manner as to effectively prevent irregular migration, to have secure travel documents, to establish migration and asylum systems in line with international standards, to have functioning structures for combating organised crime with focus on migrants' smuggling and trafficking in human beings, to have in place and implement adequate forms of police and judicial cooperation with the EU Member States and the international community, and to respect the fundamental rights of the citizens and the foreigners with a specific attention to persons belonging to minorities and vulnerable categories.

Once the Commission considers that all the requirements listed in the Roadmap are fulfilled and has presented its proposal to amend the EC Regulation 539/2001, this proposal will be voted by qualified majority by the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament.

The Roadmap does not set a specific timetable by when the dialogue should be completed or this proposal should be presented, thus the speed of the process towards visa liberalisation will depend essentially on the progress which will be made by Turkey in addressing the requirements set out in the Roadmap.

Within the framework of the support provided through the Instrument of Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA), the Commission will support the legal reforms and the development of administrative capacities which will be deemed useful to enable the Turkish authorities to better address the requirements set out in the Roadmap.