IKV Secretary General Assoc. Prof. Çiğdem Nas attended the Institutional Development of the Directorate General for Migration Management’s Institutional Structure (Faz II) Project Kick-off Meeting which was held on 17 February 2016. With this project launched in cooperation with ICPMD (International Centre for Migration Policy Development), the British Embassy and the Directorate General of Migration Management of the Ministry of Interior aims at improving the institutional capacity of Directorate General of Migration Management. 

IKV Secretary General Assoc. Prof. Çiğdem Nas took part as a speaker at the panel held within the framework of the meeting and shared information about the impact of the Turkey-EU Readmission Agreement signed in December 2013, the ongoing developments pertaining to the visa liberalisation process and the developments following the agreement on the Turkey-EU Joint Action Plan which was signed on 29 November 2015.  IKV Secretary General Nas indicated that it is expected that Readmission Agreement will come into effect as of June 2016 and highlighted the critical importance of burden sharing between Turkey and EU in order to effectively implement the agreement. Moreover, IKV Secretary General Nas also reminded that the target date for the completion of the visa liberalisation process is October 2016, in correlation with the implementation of the Readmission Agreement. However, the 72 criteria set out in the roadmap of the visa liberalisation process must be fulfilled in order to successfully lift the visa requirements at this date.

Besides IKV Secretary General Assoc. Prof. Çiğdem Nas, Yeditepe University Faculty of Law lecturer Prof. Nuray Ekşi, General Coordinator of Association for Solidarity with Asylum Seekers and Migrants İbrahim Kavluk and Director of Migration Policy Institute Europe Elisabeth Collett attended also the panel moderated by Director of ICPMD Eastern Dimension Martijn Pluim. At the panel, the acceleration based on the agreements on immigration between Turkey and the EU (Readmission Agreement, visa liberalisation process and Joint Action Plan) and the general impact of agreements on regional power management were assessed.