IKV Secretary-General Assoc. Prof. Çiğdem Nas participated to the visa information meeting for Local Schengen Group Business Community which was hosted by Manisa Chamber of Commerce and Industry on 18 February 2016.  These visa information meetings have been held in different cities with the cooperation of TOBB and the Delegation of the EU to inform business people and public opinion about the Schengen visas and the visa liberalisation dialogue. The difficulties related to the application process to Schengen visas have been the main topic discussed at the meeting.

In his opening speech, Chairman of Manisa Chamber of Commerce and Industry Adnan Erbil stressed that the facilitation of the visa applications would further improve bilateral relations in parallel to the bilateral trade volume. Besides, Jörg Dieter Kösting from the EU Delegation gave introductory information about the Readmission Agreement which was signed between Turkey and the EU in December 2013 and informed participants regarding the future of the visa liberalisation dialogue.

In this meeting, IKV Secretary-General Nas presented the outcomes of the Visa Hotline Project which was conducted by IKV in cooperation with TOBB and ECAS. She also gave brief information about the background and different dimensions of the visa issue.