Türkiye is hoping its revived relations with the European Union will come with progress in visa liberalization talks, which have been hamstrung due to a variety of issues in recent years.
Since the start of the summer, Ankara and the bloc have been working to rekindle ties, which for many years operated not toward mutual trust and strategic goals but only out of necessity.
Türkiye has the most extended history with the union and the most prolonged accession process, which only officially started in 2005 despite the first agreement being signed with the EU’s predecessor the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1964. Since then, the process has been essentially frozen due to political roadblocks by certain EU members, including Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration, for reasons unrelated to membership criteria, according to Ankara.
After the presidential and parliamentary elections concluded in May, Brussels has shifted its rhetoric from “the importance of cooperation with Türkiye” to “continuing relations on a strategic and forward-looking basis.”
The European Council, convening 27 heads of EU states before the summer break in late June, called on the European Commission to submit a report “on the state of play of EU-Türkiye relations” in the light of the recent elections in Türkiye to be discussed in the fall.
Markedly, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced ahead of a NATO summit in July that Türkiye anticipated the EU would resume accession talks after Ankara paved the way for Sweden’s NATO membership, effectively re-energizing dialogue.
In late July, the foreign ministers of member states tackled the bloc’s relations with Türkiye, with foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell informing EU officials of Ankara’s demands, including visa liberalization and updating the customs union.
Separately Erdoğan assured Türkiye’s expectations were conveyed to the EU side and said, "I hope we will soon see the positive results of these moves, which will be in the interest of both our country and the European Union.”
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan too argued Erdoğan, with his call at the NATO summit, had taken the course of Turkish-Swedish talks to a new strategic level and urged the bloc to reconsider Türkiye’s legitimate security concerns, especially regarding terrorist groups.
He further confirmed that a road map had emerged as a result of a meeting with the EU during the NATO summit.
The dialogue on visa liberalization aims to eliminate the requirement for Turkish citizens of obtaining visas for short-term touristic, business or family-related visits (90-180 days) to all EU member states except Ireland and the Schengen countries Iceland, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Norway.
The said dialogue, launched simultaneously with the Türkiye-EU Readmission Agreement on Dec. 16, 2013, was carried out per a road map containing 72 criteria under five main groups.
The rules document security in terms of preparation of passports in accordance with EU standards, biometric passports, ensuring the security of passports, identity cards and other similar documents, migration management ensuring adequate control and surveillance at the borders, international protection and EU transactions related to foreigners.
They also include public order and security in terms of fighting and preventing organized crime, terrorism and corruption. In this context, harmonization with the EU acquis on the financing of terrorism, human trafficking and cybercrimes, judicial cooperation in criminal matters, protection of personal data, the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms, non-discrimination, access to travel and identity documents, and access to identity documents of refugees and stateless persons and readmission of irregular migrants were also topics on the agenda.
At that time, Türkiye implemented 66 of these conditions.
The six terms, which are the review of the Anti-Terror Law and the Penal Code, compliance of the Personal Data Protection Law and its institution with EU standards, making a judicial cooperation agreement with all member states, fully fulfilling the obligations arising from the readmission agreement, signing an operational cooperation agreement with EUROPOL and the approval of laws fulfilling the Council of Europe's GRECO recommendations, have still not been met.
Türkiye has said some of these conditions are ready to be implemented soon.
Experts say this right should be granted to Türkiye in the current circumstances, but they do not expect progress in the coming period.
When Erdoğan brought up Türkiye’s EU process in regards to Sweden’s NATO membership, he only said it once but his call still resonated, according to Koert Debeuf, an academic known for his work on Türkiye and lecturer at Brussels School of Governance.
"The war in Ukraine changed the world's perspective as the EU realized it needed more friends. This makes it difficult to explain the visa liberalization denial to Türkiye," Debeuf pointed out.
Amanda Paul, the Türkiye expert of the Brussels-based European Policy Center (EPC), argued the political will among member states was “quite low” in this regard, citing the recent surge in the rejections of Schengen visa applications from Türkiye.
"Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly difficult for Turks to obtain Schengen visas, including for well-known artists, business personalities and university students, who have been accepted to EU universities or whose internship applications have been approved at EU institutions. Applications are often unfairly rejected by the EU,” she said.
This has seriously damaged the image of the EU, Paul said, adding, "At least, the EU should prioritize issuing visas to certain groups, including students. I hope at this least this can be achieved from the negotiations.”
The European Commission suggested to Türkiye in May 2016 it would abolish the visa requirement for Turkish citizens with the understanding that Ankara would fulfill all 72 conditions, Anitta Hipper, the spokesperson of the European Commission responsible for internal affairs, told Anadolu Agency (AA).
“Additionally, the criteria that are already considered met must be fulfilled consistently. Türkiye must clearly meet all the criteria before further steps are taken on the EU side," she said, emphasizing that the commission was ready to support Türkiye in this regard.
Previously, Hipper claimed that visa refusals were not a special situation for Türkiye but were due to reduced services and accumulated applications during the COVID-19 period.
