Turkey Waives Visas for EU Citizens, Awaits Visa-Free Travel Decision for Its Nationals

Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu (L), European Council President Donald Tusk (C), and European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker (R) during a news conference at the end of a EU-Turkey summit in Brussels, 8 March 2016. Photo EPA/BGNES

Turkey has decided to lift visa requirements for all EU citizens in a move aimed at ensuring visa-free travel to Europe for its own nationals.

The Turkish government adopted the decision granting visa-free travel to citizens of the 28 EU member states late on Monday, according to the country’s Official Gazette.

The decision, which is part of a wider agreement on visa liberalization, followed reports saying that the European Commission was going to propose to ease visa requirements for the travel of Turkish citizens to the EU’s borderless Shengen Area on 4 May. However, EU governments and the European parliament, which have the final say over approval, could reject the proposal.

"With this decree, Turkey has fulfilled one more of the important benchmarks for visa liberalization," European Commission spokesman Margaritas Schinas told a briefing in Brussels on Tuesday, according to Reuters.

Visa liberalisation was offered in return for Turkey taking back migrants who had crossed the Aegean Sea to Greece. The EU fears that without the deal on migration signed in March, Ankara won’t control the flow of migrants into Europe.

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