A clear message from a high-level person on Turkey’s EU membership and visa process
Nacho Sánchez Amor, European Parliament rapporteur on Turkey, made statements… Speaking to Euronews, Amor said that Turkey’s accession process to the EU has become dysfunctional.
Amor, who has worked as Rapporteur for Turkey for four years, said: “The membership process has become dysfunctional. “If the process is not functional, which in my opinion becomes dysfunctional, we have to find another format,” he said.
Assessing President Erdogan’s departure from the EU membership ahead of last week’s NATO Leaders’ Summit, Amor said: “President Erdogan’s change in attitude may be normal. However, considering Sweden’s transition from NATO membership to European Union membership was completely unexpected and impossible anyway. Because here there are two different channels, two different organizations with different rational structures; NATO is about, shall we say, military and security. The European Union, on the other hand, is a club of democracies that is still at the center of the accession process.
“THERE IS NO REFORM IN Türkiye, THERE ARE PRECEDENTS”
“All countries have to meet the Copenhagen criteria. So we have to assess the current situation in Türkiye. There are no changes to the current situation. There are no reforms. On the contrary, there is a complete setback in the fields of human rights and the rule of law. This is the essence of the participation process. Of course we have to discuss a lot of technical issues, but the main thing that we have to consider, and that has been evaluated in my reports, as well as in the reports of other commissions, is that there is no apparent political will to make the country a full-fledged democracy.” Amor said that Sweden’s membership in NATO is an unusual situation because there is a war situation. I am very happy to see that Erdogan finally lifted the veto because it was a very, very painful situation. We appreciate this last step.”
Amor also stated that European policies towards the PKK should be more consistent. The European official also stressed that the European Union did not make an offer in exchange for Turkey’s approval of Sweden’s membership. Amor commented: “I think it would be great for the European Union to have a strong and democratic Turkey, this powerful country in our midst.”
“THE GOVERNMENT DID NOT SEND THIS REFORM TO PARLIAMENT”
Regarding the lack of progress on visa liberalization issues addressed to him, Amor said: “There is no progress on these issues because there are criteria and conditions that the Turkish government has not addressed. This is the real thing. I am sure that the message has been given to the public in Turkey that the European Union does not deliver on this. What we signed into the agreement on immigration is that when Turkey meets these criteria, it will be ready to rejoin the visa liberalization process. Two of these are very important. The scope of the concept of terrorism in anti-terrorism law and data protection law. But I have not heard that the government sent this reform to parliament last year. So what happened in the last period is different from this process, ”he said.
“TRUE FREE VISA SOLUTION”
The senior European official made a detailed statement on the visa issue.
Amor said: “I think the real solution to visa problems is to opt for visa liberalization. In the meantime, we are aware that visa offices in European countries are not adequately serviced and there are many delays in obtaining a visa. We are aware of this, we are concerned about it. We strengthened our services because, as you know, after the pandemic there was a great demand to travel for business or other reasons. The solution that I propose in my report is to speed up the visa procedure for students who qualify for Erasmus in Europe. This could be one approach. We can start by talking about Erasmus students. Ultimately, we can also talk about business, but the real solution to the problem is not to choose a particular group of people, but to actually approve and truly meet the criteria that the Turkish authorities must meet before visa liberalization,” he said.