While Brussels is desperate for the deal to succeed, it also insists that Turkey meet 72 criteria, which include narrowing its anti-terrorism laws.
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Ankara has complied with majority, but one has emerged as a major obstacle: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and others say Ankara won’t narrow its definition of “terrorist” and “terrorist act”.
European parliament president Martin Schulz said that the deal was struck not with an individual but with the Turkish government, in reference to the departure of Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
The visa-free travel issue is part of a Turkey-EU deal aimed at easing Europe’s migration crisis.
Other European politicians also piled pressure on Ankara, with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier saying it was up to Turkey to fulfil the criteria if it wants visa-free travel.
“That’s how we agreed it with Turkey, and the outcome of the change in the office of the Turkish prime minister can not be that agreements between the European Union and Turkey are disavowed”, Jean-Claude Juncker said. “If Turkey fulfils its commitments, then I would be in favour of us fulfilling our commitments and pressing ahead with visa liberalisation”. “This deal we have signed with Turkey, it’s a botched job”, he told the Cope radio station.
“We have to recognize that we need such an agreement … that it’s worth all the difficulties involved to negotiate it”, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country has taken in most of the migrants, said Thursday.
The statements were made at a joint press conference following Schulz’s 45-minute meeting with the Turkish minister for European Union affairs, Volkan Bozkir. “This is not my problem, this will be his problem”, Juncker added Thursday.
Turkey’s Minister of EU Affairs Volkan Bozkir speaks during a joint press conference with President of the European Parliament after a meeting, on May 11, 2016 at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France.
“The European Parliament will discuss the report that will open Europe visa-free for Turkish citizens”.
Doctors Without Borders today slammed the EU-Turkey deal to stem the influx of migrants to the bloc as a “historic abdication” of Europe’s moral and legal responsibilities.
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The Commission erred by making reforms to Turkey’s antiterrorism laws a key demand when it recommended last week that the European Union lift visa requirements for Turks, Mr. Bozkir said. Turkish national leaders have already warned that the EU-Turkey migrant deal could be binned if visa liberalisation fails to go through.
