site.btaTurkish Foreign Minister: Ankara Must Complete Remaining Steps to Secure EU Visa Liberalization

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in an interview with CNN Turk on Friday that the country must take concrete steps to secure visa-free travel for its citizens to the European Union. Among those steps, he identified the need for parliament to adopt certain laws.

"At the moment, there are five or six things left for us to do, including laws that need to be passed by the Grand National Assembly," Fidan said.

"Regarding visas, Turkiye needs to take several steps, but this process must be managed until visa liberalization with the European Union is achieved. They [European commissioners] say they have made the process much easier, but the data we see do not reflect that. As Turkiye's GDP grows, more and more people want to travel to Europe for education, trade, business, tourism and to experience its culture, while European countries are centralizing their visa policy with each passing day. Previously, each country had its own discretion, whereas now a centralized policy is being followed, with all countries requiring the same documents and applying the same rules, making the process more bureaucratic," the Foreign Minister said.

He explained that the number of visa applicants from Turkiye increases every year, while the numbers of people granted and refused EU visas remain relatively similar.

Fidan also commented on his meeting with the three European commissioners who visited Turkiye during the week: the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas; the Commissioner for Enlargement, Marta Kos; and the Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner.

"All three had important issues to discuss with Turkiye," Fidan noted. "They were also received by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It was important for them to hear directly from the highest level of state authority about Turkiye's commitment to its European perspective and about our expectations. This stagnation in relations between Turkiye and the European Union is not something these colleagues [the commissioners] are happy with. On the one hand, the Customs Union needs to be reviewed and modernized. Both sides agree on that, but there is an obstacle blocking the process - the position of the Greek side. There are problematic areas."

Turkiye's chief diplomat stressed that relations with the EU institutions are gaining new momentum at certain levels, but that decisions also need to be taken within the EU itself for the relationship to move to the next stage.

"Commissioners come and go and there are many contacts. But to reach broader, sustainable and strategic levels, certain decisions need to be taken within the EU. There is no lack of political will on Turkiye's part. They need to resolve among themselves certain issues relating to matters decided by voting," Fidan said.

Following his meeting with Kos, Kallas and Brunner, the Foreign Minister expressed hope that the development of relations between Turkiye and the EU will be based on objective criteria.

A joint written statement by the Turkish Foreign Minister and the members of the European Commission, published on the Foreign Ministry website, said the meetings focused on Turkiye-EU relations, recalling Turkiye's EU candidate status and recognizing the strategic value of relations between Ankara and the bloc.

The three European commissioners expressed readiness to work towards improving the implementation of the Customs Union and said Turkiye's possible participation in the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) would be beneficial. In the context of visa liberalization, migration and border security were also discussed, with both sides expressing their determination to work together on those issues.

At the same time, the commissioners once again stressed the need to guarantee democratic standards, human rights and the rule of law in Turkiye in the context of EU enlargement.