Turkish access to Schengen zone
THE European Union would today grant conditional approval for Turks to gain visa-free access to the Schengen zone, sources said yesterday.
THE European Union (EU) will today grant conditional approval for Turks to gain visa-free access to the Schengen zone, sources said, meeting one of Ankara’s key demands to keep a deal on migrants alive.
The European Commission, executive arm of the 28-nation EU, will say Turkey must still implement further measures in order to access the passportless Schengen area without visas by next month, the sources said.
Ankara has demanded visafree travel in exchange for taking back migrants who land in Greece under a deal signed in March, seeking to curb the influx as Europe grapples with its biggest migrant crisis since the Second World War.
EU member states and the European Parliament must still approve the Turkey visa plan after it is cleared by the commission, which is by no means a foregone conclusion as many countries have concerns over human rights in Turkey.
“The commission will put forward a plan to include Turkey in the list of countries exempted from visas,” a European source said, adding that “only 64 out of the 72 criteria are fulfilled” and that the offer, therefore, remains a conditional one.
Turkey has to meet the list of 72 criteria — ranging from biometric passports to respect for human rights — that were set when Brussels and Ankara first talked about 90-day visa-free travel to the Schengen area.
Turkey has pressed the EU to respect its promises over what Ankara regards as its big win from the deal signed at a summit on March 18.
But Germany and France have proposed an emergency brake, or “snap-back mechanism”, under which it could halt visa-free travel if large numbers of Turks stay in the EU illegally, or if there are a large number of asylum applications by Turks.
The EU struck the deal to send back all “irregular” migrants who arrived in Greece after March 20 and are turned down for asylum, in a bid to halt the mass migration, which has created enormous strain in European countries.
In exchange, the EU will resettle one Syrian refugee from camps in Turkey for every Syrian that Turkey takes back from the Greek islands, the aim being to discourage people from crossing to Greece in the first place.
The accord is awash with legal and moral concerns, and critics have accused the EU of sacrificing its values and overlooking Turkey’s growing crackdown on free speech in order to secure the deal.
Today, the EU will also allow countries to extend border controls in the Schengen area as a result of the migrant crisis and recent terror attacks. Germany and France, among others, requested the extension.
Since last year, several coun- tries in the 26-nation Schengen zone have reintroduced border controls due to the migrant crisis — effectively suspending its principle of border-free travel.
Also today, the EU is expected to unveil an overhaul of its asylum rules to more fairly share responsibility for migrants and refugees arriving in Europe.
The existing Dublin rules have been criticised as obsolete and unfair to countries such as Greece, where most of the 1.25million Syrian, Iraqi, Afghan and other migrants entered the bloc last year.