According to the report, the the European parliament and EU members must approve the agreement, while “Turkey must still meet EU criteria”.
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Ex-communist states in central and eastern Europe say their homogeneous societies are ill equipped to take in large numbers of migrants, especially from the Middle East or Africa.
Durmaz, who travels to Denmark regularly to visit family, is one of many Turks looking forward to the prospect of European travel without having to endure the time-consuming and expensive business of getting a visa every time he wants to go to the EU.
Determined action by Turkey, in concert with Greece and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, and the closing of borders across the Balkans, has all but shut the main Aegean route for people fleeing war and poverty in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East and Asia.
Speaking to EUobserver from Turkey also on Monday, Sinan Ulgen the head of the Istanbul-based Centre for Economics, said: “The general understanding is that the commission will propose visa liberalisation even though Turkey has not met all the criteria”.
The anticipated visa liberalization will not permit Turkish citizens to work or seek benefits in the EU. The reports come after Turkey threatened to back out of the migration deal.
Urtay added that visa-free travel is a “cornerstone” of the migrant deal and said Ankara is serious when it says it would stop migrant readmissions unless it gets the travel perks.
But it is unclear whether this would be acceptable to Ankara, which basked in favourable headlines following the EU’s visa promise in March.
Reporters Without Borders recently ranked Turkey 151st out of the 180 countries on its 2016 World Press Freedom Index.
Under the EU-Turkey agreement, migrants who have arrived illegally in Greece since 20 March are to be sent back to Turkey if they do not apply for asylum or if their claim is rejected.
It is unclear how many of Turkey’s nearly 79 million citizens could benefit from visa-free travel to Europe.
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Officials hope, however, that an European Union agreement with Turkey last month that has seen a sharp drop in refugees arriving in Greece could ease internal tensions over the migration issue, which has fuelled a rise in nationalist parties across Europe. Some MEPs have been critical of the Turkish Government’s handling of human rights issues, such as freedom of expression and the treatment of minorities.
