Hosted by Trabzon Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the third visa information session for Local Schengen Group Business Community was held on the 7th May 2014 in Trabzon with the cooperation of TOBB and the Delegation of the EU in Turkey.

The opening remarks were made by the Vice-President of the Trabzon Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Erkut Çelebi; the Director of TOBB’s EU Department, Mustafa Bayburtlu; and the First Secretary of the Italian Embassy, Marcello Zaccagnio. In their speech, they mainly focused on the visa problems encountered by businessmen during their entries to and exits from EU countries.

In his speech, the Vice-President of the Trabzon Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Erkut Çelebi, discussed the difficulties encountered by Turkish businessmen when trading with EU countries. In this respect, he stressed that as a result, Turkish businessmen were losing their competitiveness. Çelebi expressed their wish to see the expansion of the visa liberalization process to all Turkish citizens and not only to businessmen. He further stated that, “the visa issue concerned not only business and trade but also family unions”. Vice-President of the Chamber also pointed out that Turkey has been taking big steps to adjust itself to the EU for a half decade, and that Turkey’s candidacy process has been ongoing for the last 10-15 years. He explained that at this point it is necessary to find permanent solutions to overcome problems such as the visa.

In the session chaired by the Director of TOBB’s EU Department, Mustafa Bayburtlu,  the speakers consisted of, the First Secretary of the Italian Embassy, Marcello Zaccagnio; the Director of Legal and Consular Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany, Stefan Delfs,; the Vice-Consul of the French Embassy, Frederic Collet; Susanne Martin and Jörg Dieter Köstinger from the EU Delegation in Turkey and IKV Deputy Secretary-General and Director of Research Melih Özsöz gave comprehensive information on this visa issue to businessmen.

IKV Deputy General-Secretary and Director of Research Özsöz gave a presentation entitled “the application of Schengen Code in Turkey within the perspective of EU Member States”.  Susanne Martin and Jörg Dieter Köstiner both from the EU Delegation in Turkey gave separate presentations on the recent situation regarding the Readmission Agreement and the visa liberalization dialogue.