The Economic Development Foundation organised a meeting titled “Current Issues in Türkiye-EU Relations: Free Movement and Migration - The Limits of Transactional Cooperation” on 28 March 2024.

Moderated by IKV Deputy Secretary General M. Gökhan Kilit, the first speaker of the meeting was IKV Secretary General Assoc. Prof. Çiğdem Nas, who started her speech by mentioning that visa-free travel and customs union are very important issues for Turkish citizens. Nas mentioned that IKV has been focusing on the visa issue for a long time and many studies have been carried out by IKV on this issue. Stating that the visa issue continues to be one of the most problematic areas in Türkiye-EU relations, Nas drew attention to the EU's goal of creating an internal security area where internal borders are abolished, and common policy areas are applied on external borders. Speaking about the new pact on Migration and Asylum presented in 2020, Nas stated that this policy, which was presented by the Commission as a draft, did not bring much change. Nas mentioned that the future of cooperation in the field of migration and refugees will be based on mutual interests and pragmatic attitudes will be seen more on human rights and migrant rights. Lastly, Nas gave information about the digitalisation process of the Schengen visa and concluded his speech by stating that this process will be completed by 2028; on the other hand, this digitalisation process will not bring a solution to the visa problems experienced by Türkiye.

The second speaker of the meeting was Prof. Murat Erdoğan from Ankara University. Erdoğan stated that the relations between Türkiye and the EU have had a strategic dimension since the beginning and that the issue of migration has recently started to intersect with this strategic dimension. Emphasising that the EU has started to see the relationship it has established with Türkiye on migration as a model and aims to develop similar partnerships with third countries, Erdoğan noted that there is a serious externalisation of migration all over the world; however, migration is a process that needs to be accepted as a reality, regulated, and managed.

The last speaker of the meeting, Prof. Sanem Baykal from TOBB University of Economics and Technology, started her speech by stating that human mobility is an area that has been regulated and foreseen since the beginning of Türkiye-EU relations. However, Baykal emphasised that Türkiye-EU relations have been shaped within the framework of institutions, rules, principles and standards from the very beginning. Pointing out that all over the world, transactional relations, which are based on cooperation on one or a few issues rather than comprehensive compromises and which are maintained with a kind of "give-and-take" logic, have gained weight, Baykal concluded his speech by underlining that this style cannot be a productive approach for the present and future of Türkiye-EU relations.

The meeting ended after the questions from the participants were answered.