EC: Turkey fails to meet criteria for visa-free EU travel

Brussels, 15 June 2016 (MIA) - Turkey has missed an EU deadline that would have allowed its citizens visa-free travel through most of Europe, amid ongoing tensions over a controversial migration deal.

EU leaders promised the Turkish government that 79 million Turks could have access to Europe’s 26-country border-free travel zone by June, as part of a hotly-disputed bargain on migration. But this was always conditional on Turkey meeting 72 EU conditions on border security and fundamental rights.

The European commission announced on Wednesday that Turkey has still failed to meet some of the conditions, including changes to its counter-terrorism legislation, The Guardian reports. 

In a separate decision, EU ambassadors are expected to approve opening negotiations on one part of Turkish membership talks later on Wednesday. The decision to open talks on budget is a symbolic gesture that was promised under the migration deal.

The prospect of Turkey’s membership of the EU has inflamed the UK EU referendum debate even though Turkey is unlikely to join for decades, if ever. The visa deal does not apply to the UK or Ireland, which are outside the EU’s Schengen area.

Since Turkey’s EU membership talks began in 2005, only one of the 35 “chapters” has been closed. Several are blocked over the long-running dispute with Cyprus, while Turkey is seen by the EU as regressing on freedom of expression and the rule of law.

The widely-expected decision to delay the visa deal came one day after the EU’s ambassador to Turkey resigned amid accusations of a lack of respect for national values. Hansjörg Haber will leave his post as the EU ambassador to Turkey in August, after making provocative comments about the migration deal that infuriated the Turkish government. The German diplomat, who was only appointed last August, was accused of showing disrespect for Turkish national values and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Doubts about the visa deal have mounted ever since Erdoğan ousted the prime minister who led negotiations with the EU. Turkey’s strongman leader has flatly rejected EU calls to re-write his country’s anti-terrorism laws: “we’ll go our way, you go yours,” he said.

In a statement the EU commission said progress on the EU-Turkey deal was fragile.

But Dimitris Avramopoulos, the European commissioner in charge of migration and visa policy, said he expected Turkey to meet the EU conditions on visa-free travel. “Statement diplomacy is not very helpful,” he said, adding that his talks with government officials at the highest possible level showed a a strong will to cooperate with the EU.

“I believe the migration crisis is bringing Turkey closer to Europe,” he said.

He declined to specify when the deal could be agreed, muddying expectations that this might happen when the EU published its next progress report in September.

Anxieties about EU visa-free travel deals have surfaced in several countries. A visa-free deal for Georgia’s 5 million citizens was put on hold last week, after last-minute opposition from France, Italy and Germany. The EU is also negotiating a visa-free travel deal with Ukraine. Governments, led by France and Germany, have insisted on an emergency brake that would allow them to halt the arrangement, if there was abuse of the rules.

Since the EU agreed the migration pact with Turkey in March, the number of migrants making the perilous journey to Greece has fallen sharply. Fewer than 50 people a day risked the dangerous Aegean sea crossing in May on average, compared to daily arrivals of up to 2,000 at the start of the year.

So far 511 Syrian refugees have been resettled in Europe from Turkey, under the one-for-one scheme. Around 462 migrants, including 31 Syrians, have been sent back to Turkey from Greece.