IKV Chairperson Ayhan Zeytinoğlu issued a statement regarding the difficulties and obstacles experienced during the Schengen visa application process especially for businesspeople and truck drivers. Chairperson Zeytinoğlu noted the severity of the issue and explained the problems caused by delays and bottlenecks in the process:

“Since last year we have been experiencing an ever-growing number of problems and bottlenecks in the Schengen visa application process. Especially for businesspeople who wish to travel to the Schengen area for business purposes such as participating in a fair or engaging in a business meeting, it has become harder to get appointments in time to be able to take part in these activities. The waiting period may be more than 2 months which makes business planning very difficult. We also receive many complaints about the increasing number of refusals despite the presentation of valid documents. Even for businesspeople who have visited the Schengen area many times before, the period of validity is quite short. The truck drivers’ problems have become even more acute. Due to failure to get a visa or renew their Schengen visas, the goods that need to be transported have to wait. This situation delays and prevents swift and effective transportation of goods from Türkiye to the EU. It creates a non-tariff barrier which creates disruption of the EU-Türkiye Customs Union. We expect that EU Member States and relevant institutions will take note of the matter and take steps to ease the process and facilitate visa applications.