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The EU understands the need for abolition of visa regime with Russia, but is awaiting reciprocal steps from Moscow.

This was announced at a press conference in Kaliningrad (Western Russia) by the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the German Bundestag Ruprecht Polenz, who is taking part in the ongoing first trilateral meeting of parliamentarians- international affairs experts from Russia, Poland and Germany.

Head of the Russian State Duma International Committee Konstantin Kosachev noted that the MPs are unanimous on the issue of visa-free regime between Kaliningrad and the neighboring provinces of Poland.

However, in practice it all hinges on the internal regulations of the European Union, Kosachev said, stressing that on the part of Russia there were no problems.

Source: Voice of Russia

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It almost went unnoticed. Last week, after years of negotiating, the European Union and Turkey finally agreed on a so-called readmission agreement. It means that Turkey has agreed to take back illegal migrants who are arrested in EU countries and who travelled to the EU via Turkey.

Until recently, the problem was that Turkey was willing to accept responsibility for Turkish citizens who entered the EU without permission but was very reluctant to do so for thousands of migrants from Iraq, Central Asia and Africa who use Turkey as a relatively easy gateway to Europe. It seems that Turkey got the guarantee that the EU would help, also financially, in coping with all these migrants who are sent back and have to be taken care of, in one way or another. The European commissioner responsible for negotiations with Turkey on this agreement, Swedish Liberal Cecilia Malmström, welcomed the result and announced that the text will be brought for formal approval by EU member states to the next Justice and Home Affairs Council on Feb. 24.

A readmission agreement with the EU is a condition that all candidate countries have to fulfill before they can make progress on lifting visa restrictions. In the past, with the countries of the Western Balkans, for example, after signing such an agreement, the EU started a process of so-called visa liberalization. That means that, in the end, citizens of the countries involved can travel to the EU for touristic or other short-term purposes without having to apply for a visa.

For Turks this sounds like heaven. They are now faced with complicated and humiliating demands from EU member states when they apply for permission to travel to these countries. Despite all the rhetoric about improving economic relations between the EU and Turkey, Turkish businessmen are still subjected to cumbersome procedures that make it simply impossible to act and react quickly and efficiently. The same applies for students who discover that all the nice exchange programs are seriously hampered by the same obstacles to free travel. Regular Turkish citizens are even more worse off. Will all these problems come to an end after the readmission agreement is concluded?

That is not yet clear. Commissioner Malmström, a strong defender of Turkish accession to the EU, is planning to ask EU member states on Feb. 24 not only to welcome the agreement but to also allow her to start a visa dialogue with Turkey, with the aim of eventual visa liberalization. This mandate will probably include all kinds of safeguard clauses that would allow the EU to reintroduce visa restrictions when there is a sudden strong increase in Turkish migrants. Still, despite all these additional guarantees, countries such as Germany and the Netherlands will find it difficult to start a process that

would eventually lead to the abolishment of visas for Turks. We will have to follow the meeting on Feb. 24 closely to see whether the European Commission will be successful in convincing the usual suspects. The Turkish government will interpret the conclusions of that meeting very carefully anyway because they have already announced that Turkey will only sign and ratify the readmission agreement when the EU agrees on the final goal of visa-free travel.

The most likely outcome will be that EU member states will agree on starting a slow process of gradual relaxation of the visa regime for Turkish citizens. The first step in that long process could be so-called visa facilitation. This means that first specific groups, such as businessmen, students and academics, would be exempted from acquiring a visa. The EU has some experience in that field because this is how the Balkan countries were treated in the recent past as well. Only when that goes well would further steps be made.

I can understand that many Turks are cynical about the EU’s double standards and pessimistic about substantial improvements in the short run. Still, I believe that last week a significant and symbolic point was reached that will make it more difficult for the EU to keep the present discriminating rules in place.

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