IKV Chairman Ayhan Zeytinoğlu commented upon the statement European Commission Member Dimitris Avramopoulos has made regarding the Refugee Facility for Turkey and new proposals concerning visa policy:

“As stated in 18 March 2016 Turkey-EU statement, it was estimated that a total of 6 billion euros of funds within the framework of the Refugee Facility for Turkey were to be mobilised in two different tranches. It was asserted that the 3 billion euros which is the second tranche of this portion and is intended for post 2018 will be mobilised. Although delayed, this is a positive development. However, as civil society we have a concern here. We are concerned that it will take a very long time for these funds to become available and for them to be reflected on the improvement of the quality of life of the Syrian population under temporary protection.  These funds must be transferred quickly and directly to projects to be carried out by or in cooperation with municipalities where Syrians are most concentrated. Only in this way maximum benefit could be obtained.”

Chairman Zeytinoğlu also touched upon the changes proposed by the Commission on visa policy.  According to the statement Avramopoulos has made, the visa policy of the EU is changing. The proposals brought by the Commission have not yet come into force. However, just like Turkey, the countries whose citizens enter the EU countries with visas need to closely follow the developments. Beside the positive and innovative changes such as the reduction of decision-making time for visa applications from 15 to 10 days, the possibility of making applications in electronic form, giving multiple entry visas to trusted regular travellers for a period from 1 up to 5 years, the issuance of single entry visas directly at the external land or sea borders of the EU for a maximum of 7 days, there are points which would cause additional costs for the applicants such as the rise of the visa fee from 60 euros to 80 euros.

IKV Chairman Ayhan Zeytinoğlu emphasised that visa liberalisation continues to be the main target for Turkish citizens, commented upon the changes proposed by the Commission and indicated that there are some negative sides along with the positive ones:

“The proposals which have been stated by Dimitris Avramopoulos, the Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship, comprises considerable changes in EU visa policy. We, as civil society representatives in Turkey, believe that the visas will be lifted in the near future as a result of the visa liberalisation dialogue. Still at the moment we are faced with the visa obligation and have to closely follow developments in the EU’s visa policy. Innovative measures such as the reduction of decision-making time for visa applications, validity of multiple entry visas for a longer period and the single entry visas for the countries at the borders of the EU can be seen as positive developments. However, the rise in the visa fees is very thought-provoking. Visa application costs are not limited to the application fee. There are many additional items such as bank fee, notary fee and translation fee. That is why, it is advisable that the rise in the fees should be reconsidered. Turkish citizens paid 317 million euros for Schengen visa applications in the past 7 years (2010-16). If we consider the additional costs as well, we know that the actual cost is much higher.”

Chairman Zeytinoğlu stated that there are some suggestive factors among the Commission’s proposal as well:

“Beside this, there are some critical points among the proposed changes. For example, the Commission states that it will use the visa policy as a security tool. It is stated that stricter conditions will apply to visa applications from countries that have not cooperated with the EU in case of readmission of irregular migrants. Which means that, when visas are granted to citizens of countries that do not cooperate with the EU in irregular migration, the process could be slowed down, the validity period of visas could be reduced and the fees could be increased. This situation shows that the visa will be used by the EU as a tool to force other countries to cooperate with the EU”.

“Visa Liberalisation for Turkish citizens is also beneficial for the EU”

Chairman Zeytinoğlu stated that the Commission’s establishment of the Visa Information System, which is expected to be announced in the coming months and aimed at increasing security, is positive in terms of travel security, illegal immigration and co-operation against crime. Zeytinoğlu said that “the information of travellers to the EU could be compared with other databases such as the Schengen Information System and the Criminal Register Information System by creating a single search portal. This is important in terms of security for the EU's neighbouring countries such as Turkey. In the process of visa liberalisation with Turkey, the steps are being taken to ensure better cooperation on these issues. Among the proposed steps to meet the remaining visa liberalisation criteria Turkey has provided, signing an operational cooperation agreement with Europol and cooperation with the EU member states on judicial cooperation plays a part. In this sense, the completion of the visa liberalization process will contribute to Turkey-EU cooperation in migration and mobility matters and cooperation against trans-border crime. The completion of the visa liberalisation process in the near future and the actualisation of the visa-free Europe target are the fundamental objectives for us”.