Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held a phone call with European Commissioner for Neighborhood and Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi on Sunday, diplomatic sources said on Monday. During the call, Fidan said the European Union should adopt a more fair and prudent attitude toward Türkiye.
The two officials discussed the conclusions of the EU General Affairs Council on enlargement on Dec. 12 and the outcomes of the EU summit held in Brussels on Dec. 14-15.
According to the sources, the Turkish foreign minister said it was not appropriate to postpone the discussion of the joint communique prepared by the European Commission and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Türkiye-EU relations to the next EU summit although it was scheduled to be discussed at last week’s summit. He said the EU should act strategically and advance its relations with Türkiye, especially in the current era of intensified global challenges.
Fidan reiterated that Türkiye expects the EU to take concrete steps on issues such as updating the customs union, increasing cooperation on investments and providing visa facilitation, the sources said.
Türkiye has been an official candidate to join the EU for 24 years, but accession talks have stalled in recent years over a number of disagreements and political roadblocks. Türkiye suggests it has fulfilled most of the criteria for membership. Though the accession process stalled, Türkiye has remained a key economic and defense partner for the 27-member bloc.
Türkiye launched a "visa liberalization dialogue" with the EU in December 2013. Fidan told lawmakers last month that Türkiye fulfilled 66 of 72 criteria in the visa liberalization roadmap and was working to fulfill the remaining criteria and for their sustainability. In a written response to questions by Turkish lawmakers in November, Fidan said Schengen visa rejection rates were around 4% between 2014 and 2016, according to data from the European Commission, and after 2016, it started increasing every year and reached 17% in 2021. He, however, noted a drop to 15.7% in 2022. Fidan said they invited ambassadors of several EU countries with high rejection rates to the ministry and voiced Türkiye’s demands and expectations on the issue.
The dialogue on visa liberalization aims to eliminate the requirement for Turkish citizens to obtain visas for short-term touristic, business, or family-related visits (90-180 days) to all EU member states except Ireland and the Schengen countries Iceland, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Norway. The said dialogue launched simultaneously with the Türkiye-EU Readmission Agreement on Dec. 16, 2013, was carried out per a roadmap containing criteria under five main groups. The rules document security in terms of preparation of passports in accordance with EU standards, biometric passports, ensuring the security of passports, identity cards and other similar documents, migration management ensuring adequate control and surveillance at the borders, international protection and EU transactions related to foreigners. They also include public order and security in terms of fighting and preventing organized crime, terrorism and corruption. In this context, harmonization with the EU acquis on the financing of terrorism, human trafficking and cybercrimes, judicial cooperation in criminal matters, protection of personal data, the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms, non-discrimination, access to travel and identity documents and access to identity documents of refugees and stateless persons and readmission of irregular migrants were also topics on the agenda.
The six terms, namely the review of the Anti-Terror Law and the Penal Code, compliance of the Personal Data Protection Law and its institution with EU standards, making a judicial cooperation agreement with all member states, fully fulfilling the obligations arising from the readmission agreement, signing an operational cooperation agreement with EUROPOL and the approval of laws fulfilling the Council of Europe’s GRECO recommendations, have still not been met.
Since the start of summer, Ankara and the bloc have been working to rekindle ties, which for many years operated not toward mutual trust and strategic goals but only out of necessity.
Türkiye has the longest history with the union and the most prolonged accession process, which only officially started in 2005 despite the first agreement being signed with the EU’s predecessor, the European Economic Community (EEC), in 1964. Since then, the process has been essentially frozen due to political roadblocks by some EU members. After the presidential and parliamentary elections concluded in May, Brussels shifted its rhetoric from "the importance of cooperation with Türkiye" to "continuing relations on a strategic and forward-looking basis."