REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL Third Report on progress by Turkey in fulfilling the requirements of its visa liberalisation roadmap
Date: 2016-05-04
Institutions: Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, European Commission
Subjects: EU visa policy, Türkiye, biometrics, frontier, fundamental rights, identity document, migration policy, national implementing measure, public order

EN 

   EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 4.5.2016  COM(2016) 278 final   REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL Third Report on progress by Turkey in fulfilling the requirements of its visa liberalisation roadmap {SWD(2016) 161 final}  
 
 
1. INTRODUCTION 

The  European  Union  (the  EU)  launched  the  Visa  Liberalisation  Dialogue  ("VLD")  with 
Turkey on 16 December 2013, in parallel with the signature of the EU-Turkey Readmission 
Agreement.1 The VLD is based on the Roadmap towards a visa free regime with Turkey (the 
Roadmap),  a  document  setting  out  the  requirements  that  Turkey  needs  to  meet  in  order  to 
enable  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  to  amend  Regulation  (EC)  No  539/2001 
which would allow Turkish citizens holding a biometric passport in line with EU standards to 
travel for short stays (i.e. of 90 days within any 180-day period) in the Schengen area without 
a  visa.  The  72  requirements  listed  in  the  Roadmap  are  organised  in  five  thematic  groups 
("blocks"): document security; migration management; public order and security; fundamental 
rights and readmission of irregular migrants.  

On  20  October  2014,  the  Commission  adopted  its  First  report  on  progress  by  Turkey  in 
fulfilling  the  requirements  of  its  visa  liberalisation  roadmap  (the  First  Report).2  The  First 
Report assessed the fulfilment of each requirement and issued recommendations for making 
further progress in all of them.  

On  29  November  2015  an  EU-Turkey  Summit  took  place,  where  the  two  sides  agreed  on 
modalities  to  deepen  their  cooperation  notably  in  managing  the  Syrian  refugee  crisis  and 
addressing irregular migration. At the Summit, the Turkish side expressed its commitment to 
accelerate the fulfilment of the Roadmap, including by anticipating the application of all the 
provisions  of  the  EU-Turkey  Readmission  agreement,  with  the  objective  of  obtaining  visa 
liberalisation by October 20163. The commitment was welcomed by the EU. 

On  4  March  2016  the  Commission  adopted  its  Second  report  on  progress  by  Turkey  in 
fulfilling  the  requirements  of  its  visa  liberalisation  roadmap  (the  Second  Report) 
accompanied  by  a  Commission  Staff  Working  Document  (CSWD).4  The  CSWD  described 
the progress made by Turkey since the First Report in fulfilling each requirement, while the 
Second Report listed recommendations for making further progress in all of them. In addition, 
the CSWD also included an assessment of the possible impacts of Turkey's visa liberalisation 
on the migratory situation of the EU. 

On 7 and 18 March 2016, meetings of Heads of State or Government of the EU and Turkey 
took  place.  The  latter  meeting  concluded  with  an  EU-Turkey  Statement5  (the  Statement) 
which stipulates that "the fulfilment of the visa liberalisation roadmap will be accelerated vis-
à-vis all participating Member States with a view to lifting the visa requirements for Turkish 
citizens at the latest by the end of June 2016, provided that all benchmarks have been met. To 
this end Turkey will take the necessary steps to fulfil the remaining requirements to allow the 
Commission to make, following the required assessment of compliance with the benchmarks, 
an appropriate proposal by the end of April on the basis of which the European Parliament 
and the Council can make a final decision". 

in  fulfilling 

1  http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-13-1259_en.htm. 
2  COM(2014)  646  final  Report  from  the  Commission  to  the  Commission  to  the  European  Parliament  and  the 
Council  on  progress  by  Turkey 
liberalisation  roadmap  
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-14-1173_en.htm. 
3  For  the  text  of  the  statement  adopted  at  the  Meeting  of  EU  heads  of  state  or  government  with  Turkey  see 
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2015/11/29-eu-turkey-meeting-statement/. 
4  COM(2014)  646  final  Report  from  the  Commission  to  the  Commission  to  the  European  Parliament  and  the 
liberalisation  roadmap  
Council  on  progress  by  Turkey 
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-14-1173_en.htm. 
5 For the full text of the statement adopted at the Meeting of EU heads of state or government with Turkey see 
http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2016/03/18-eu-turkey-statement/.  

the  requirements  of 

the  requirements  of 

in  fulfilling 

its  visa 

its  visa 

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This  Third  Report  presents  the  assessment  of  compliance  as  required  in  the  Statement.  It 
describes the main steps forward which Turkey has made since the Second Report to fulfil the 
requirements  listed  in  the  Roadmap.  It  also  provides  detailed  recommendations  on  those 
measures  which,  by  4  May  2016,  Turkey  still  needs  to  undertake  in  order  to  fulfil  the  last 
outstanding  benchmarks  of  the  Roadmap  and  to  enable  the  European  Parliament  and  the 
Council to adopt the legislative proposal made by the Commission. 

The Third Report is accompanied by a Commission Staff Working Document (CSWD) giving 
factual  information  on  the  state  of  play  of  fulfilment  of  each  requirement.  The  CSWD  also 
includes the assessment of the possible impact of visa liberalisation for Turkey on the security 
situation of the EU.  

The Third Report follows the structure of the Roadmap and therefore addresses, one by one, 
the  five  blocks  indicating  for  each  of  them  the  requirements  which  are  not  yet  entirely 
fulfilled,  and  the  measures  which  should  be  taken  by  Turkey  in  order  to  meet  these  last 
outstanding requirements.   

 2. BLOCK 1: DOCUMENT SECURITY 

Since  the  publication  of  the  Second  Report,  Turkey  made  further  progress  in  fulfilling  the 
requirements under this block.  

In particular, the Turkish authorities started to issue to Turkish citizens, at pilot level, new and 
more  secure  identity  cards  including  biometric  identifiers.  The  replacement  of the old cards 
with the new ones for all citizens of Turkey will take around three years. The process is now 
well underway. 

In  addition  to  that,  the  Turkish  authorities  have  started  to  cooperate  with  the  EU  Member 
States in sharing information on forged and falsified travel documents. The Turkish National 
Police  (TNP)  is  now  loading  in  a  regular  and  timely  manner  into  the  Dial-doc  database  of 
Interpol, to which all Member States have access, information on the false and falsified travel 
documents identified in Turkey during border check activities. In parallel, in the main airports 
of Turkey (Atatürk airport in Istanbul and Antalya airport), the TNP has established dedicated 
bureaus  tasked  to  exchange  information  and  advice  with  the  immigration  liaison  officers  of 
the  Member  States  on  suspicious  travel  documents  found  on  persons  travelling  to  the  EU. 
Furthermore,  increased  training  opportunities  have  started  to  be  offered  by  the  TNP  to  its 
officers  employed  at  the  border  crossing  points  with  the  aim  to  enhance  their  capacity  to 
detect forged documents, with a focus on documents issued by EU Member States.  

As  a  result  of  these  developments,  only  one  benchmark  of  Block  1  is  not  yet  fully  met  by 
Turkey, namely the requirement to issue to its citizens biometric passports aligned with EU 
standards as outlined in Council Regulation 2252/2004, i.e. passports with a contactless chip 
including  not  only  the  facial  image  of  the  passport  holder  but  also  her/his  fingerprints,  and 
which is protected with a Supplementary Access Control (SAC) encryption system.6  

The Turkish authorities have been working for months at technical level, including with the 
assistance of an EU-funded project, towards the fulfilment of this benchmark. However, the 
Turkish  authorities  have  informed  that  for  technical  reasons,  they  will  only  be  able  to  fully 
meet  the  benchmark  as  of  October  2016.  Given  the  acceleration  of  the  visa  liberalisation 

6  As  indicated  in  the  Roadmap,  once  granted,  the  right  to  visa  free  travel  will  apply  only  to  Turkish  citizens 
holding biometric passports in line with the standards of Council Regulation 2252/2004.  

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process decided by the Heads of State or Government of the EU and Turkey, it is objectively 
not possible for the Turkish authorities to have fulfilled this benchmark in time.  

However,  as  an  interim  solution  as  of  June  2016  and  until  the  end  of  the  year,  the  Turkish 
Authorities agreed to issue to their citizens passports including both the facial image and the 
fingerprints  of  the  passport  holder  in  order  to  enable  the  passport  holder  to  benefit  of  the 
possible  visa-free  regime  if  and  when  granted.  These  temporary  passports,  which  will  be 
issued only until the end of 2016 with a short validity duration, will differ from the passports 
required  under  the  benchmark  only  as  far  as  their  chip  will  be  protected  with  the  Extended 
Access  Control  (EAC).  This  encryption  system  is  in  line  with  the  standards  of  the 
International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), and until the end of 2014 represented the 
standard also for the European Union.    

The  Turkish  authorities  are  reminded  that,  before  the  visa-free  travel  regime  can  start,  they 
should  also  share  with  all  Member  States  the  certificates  enabling  the  latter  to  authenticate 
and read the information stored in the chip of the Turkish passports.   

3. BLOCK 2: MIGRATION MANAGEMENT 

Through a series of initiatives which were progressively launched by the Turkish authorities 
in  the  area  of  border  management,  migration  management,  international  protection  and  visa 
policy, all the requirements under this block have been fulfilled. 

Through actions in the area of border management, the Turkish authorities have managed to 
substantially reduce the number of persons irregularly crossing from the Turkish territory to 
the Greek islands. While in January and February 2016, the average daily arrivals were 1 987 
and  1 942  respectively,  in  March  and  April  they  have  been  of  852  and  140.  This  result  has 
been  achieved  partly  through  increased  patrols  of  coastal  areas  and  the  Aegean  waters,  and 
partly by taking more stringent measures to limit the internal mobility of asylum seekers and 
refugees within Turkey. The implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement of 18 March 2016 
has also played an important role in discouraging irregular departures of migrants. 

In the coming months, it will be important that the Turkish authorities continue their efforts to 
prevent  irregular  departures,  including  by  combating  migrant  smuggling  organisations,  and 
that the authorities remain vigilant about the possibility of appearance of new and alternative 
migratory routes towards the EU. 

The  Turkish  authorities  have  ratified  the  Agreement  on  Establishing  the  Tripartite  Border 
Cooperation Centre at the Capitan Andreevo border crossing point. This Agreement should be 
implemented  as  soon  as  possible.  The  Turkish  authorities  have  formally  communicated  to 
their Greek counterparts their willingness  to  set up  a  secure communication  line connecting 
the  Coast  Guards  of  the  two  countries.  Discussions  at  technical  level  have  begun.  The 
establishment  of  such  a  communication  line  should  facilitate  the  sharing  of  information  on 
migrant smuggling and the coordination of the patrolling operations at sea.  

The Turkish authorities also took the decision to establish the National Risk Analysis Center 
(NACORAC),  the development of  which will be  supported by an  EU-funded project. Other 
EU-funded  projects  already  foreseen  will  contribute  to  strengthening  border  surveillance 
along the Eastern borders of Turkey to prevent undetected border crossings. Finally, Turkish 
authorities also adopted a Common Code of Conduct and Anti-Corruption Rules applicable to 
the personnel employed by border management agencies.  

In the field of asylum Turkey has also taken very important measures.  

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First  of  all  the  General  Directorate  for  Migration  Management  (DGMM),  in  charge  of  the 
management  of  the  Turkish  asylum  system,  is  now  processing  without  delays  all  new 
applications for international protection. The DGMM has also started to reduce the backlog of 
all  old  asylum  requests  which  were  pending  an  assessment,  and  whose  overall  amount  had 
reached,  at  the  end  of  February,  the  level  of  around  140 000.  Thanks  to  the  new  proactive 
approach  taken  by  the  DGMM,  and  its  mobilisation  of  additional  human  resources,  the 
backlog was already reduced to approximately 100 000 pending asylum requests at the end of 
April.  Although  the  DGMM  is  proceeding  now at  fast  speed  with  the  processing  of  asylum 
requests, it is objectively not possible for all the outstanding asylum requests to be processed 
by the end of June 2016, i.e. by the target date set by the EU-Turkey Statement of 18 March 
for the conclusion of the visa liberalisation process. However, the GDMM has elaborated and 
is implementing a roadmap on the basis of which it plans to complete its work by the end of 
2016.   

The Turkish authorities have also continued making progress in providing social assistance to 
the  refugees  hosted  in  the  country.  On  27  April  2015,  the  Turkish  Government  adopted  a 
regulation granting to applicants and beneficiaries of international protection access to work 
permits on terms comparable to those it had already granted in January 2015 to refugees from 
Syria under temporary protection. 

It  will  be  important  that  in  the  near  future,  and  taking  advantage  of  the  financial  assistance 
provided by the EU and its Member States that has been increased since the operationalization 
of the Facility for the Refugees in Turkey (FRIT), the Turkish authorities continue putting in 
place  measures  facilitating  the  access  of  applicants  and  beneficiaries  of  international 
protection  to  social  services,  decent  housing,  vocational  and  linguistic  training,  and  support 
any  initiatives  contributing  to  their  social  inclusion  and  economic  self-reliance  within  the 
Turkish society.  

Progress  was  also  made  by  the  Turkish  authorities,  during  the  reporting  period,  also  in  the 
field of migration management.  

Implementation  procedures  and  principles  regulating  the  foreigners'  voluntary  return  were 
adopted on 26 April 2016. The readmission agreement with Pakistan was ratified and entered 
into force on 20 April 2016. The conclusion of readmission agreements was also proposed by 
the  Turkish  authorities  to  fourteen  countries  of  origin  of  irregular  migration,  including 
Afghanistan,  Algeria,  Bangladesh,  Cameroon,  Congo,  Eritrea  Ghana,  Iran,  Iraq,  Morocco, 
Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan and Tunisia.  Negotiations with some of these countries started. 

In the field of visa policy, ,on 2 May 2016, the Turkish Government adopted a decree stating 
that the citizens of all Member States will be able to enter Turkey from the date of lifting of 
the  visa  requirement  for  Turkish  citizens.  This  ensures  the  end  of  the  discriminatory  visa 
requirement to which the citizens of eleven Member States are still subject.  

The  Turkish  authorities  also  took  several  measures  to  strengthen  their  visa  system  towards 
countries deemed to be at high migratory risk. 

They toughened the procedures and requirements for the issuance of visas by their embassies 
through  adopting,  on  26  April  2016,  a  Directive  on  Principles  and  Procedures  Regarding 
Assessment of Visa Applications.  

The  Turkish  authorities  also  decided  to  impose  airport  transit  visas  to  the  citizens  of  18 
countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Congo,  Democratic Republic of  the  Congo, 
Eritrea,  Ghana,  Ivory  Coast,  Mali,  Myanmar,  Nigeria,  Pakistan,  Somalia,  South  Africa,  Sri 
Lanka, Sudan, Uganda) with a provision which will start applying as of 1 September 2016.  

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The Turkish e-visa system has also become much more secure. The possibility to benefit of 
this system has been limited either to nationals of countries which are not source countries of 
irregular  migration  flows,  or  to  nationals  of  source  countries  who  hold  a  valid  visa  or  a 
residence permit issued by a Schengen country or by the United States, the United Kingdom 
or Ireland. The Turkish authorities have also put in place special desks, in most of the border 
crossing  points  of  the  country,  where  police  staff  with  specialised  training  verifies  the 
effective presence of these visas or residence permits in the passports of the e-visa holders.  

In  the  nearest  future,  it  will  be  of  key  importance  that  Turkey  continues  progressively  to 
further align its visa system to the EU standards.  

In  the  shorter-term,  the  Turkish  authorities  will  have  to  continue  monitoring  the  practical 
effects deriving from the fact that the list of the countries which are declared visa-free under 
the Turkish system remains different from the list established for the entry into the EU, and 
react  in  a  timely  manner  in  case  it  appears  that  this  difference  facilitates  the  arrival  of 
irregular migration via Turkey towards the EU.    

In  January  and  February  2016,  the  Turkish  authorities,  noticing  that  this  was  the  case  for 
Syrians  and  Iraqis,  imposed  more  effective  visa  obligations  on  these  two  nationalities.  This 
contributed to putting an end to high irregular migration flows directed towards the EU. The 
Turkish authorities should be prepared to repeat the same in the future and to impose without 
delay visa obligations on additional visa-free countries as soon as it appears that many of the 
citizens of such a visa-free countries abuse the possibility to enter visa-free in Turkey. This is 
even  more  so  if  there  is  a  risk  of  subsequent  irregular  migration  towards  the  EU.  The 
examples  of  Iran,  Morocco  and  Lebanon,  three  visa-free  countries  from  which  in  2015 
respectively,  23 087,  7 419  and  2 044  irregular  migrants  reached  the  EU  via  the  Turkish 
territory, are of particular importance. 

4. BLOCK 3: PUBLIC ORDER AND SECURITY 

Since the adoption of the Second Report, the Turkish authorities took many measures under 
block 3 which led to important steps forward. 

In particular, Turkey adopted a new strategy and an action plan for the fight against organised 
crime, which it now needs to fully implement especially as regards actions aiming at reducing 
cross-border  crime,  such  as  firearms  trafficking.  On  18  April  2016,  Turkey  also  adopted  a 
new  strategy  and  multiannual  action  plan  on  the  fight  against  drug  trafficking,  covering  the 
period  2016-2018.  On  30  April  2016,  the  Turkish  authorities  also  adopted  a  national  action 
plan on corruption. 

Moreover, Turkey ratified the Council of Europe (CoE) Convention on Laundering, Search, 
Seizure  and  Confiscation  of  the  Proceeds  from  Crime  and  on  the  Financing  of  Terrorism, 
adopting also legislation to align its national framework to the provisions of this Convention. 
Implementation  of this new legislation in  line with the revised Financial Action Task Force 
standard  is  essential.  Meanwhile,  also  with  the  assistance  of  an  EU-funded  project,  Turkish 
authorities  continued  to  strengthen  the  capacities  of  the  MASAK  –  the  Turkish  Financial 
Intelligence Unit (FIU) to cooperate with the law enforcement agencies of Turkey in detecting 
and  analysing  money  laundering  and  the  financing  of  terrorism,  and  to  cooperate  with  the 
Member State's FIUs in this area. 

Turkey  also  ratified  the  Additional  Protocol  to  the  CoE  Convention  on  the  Transfer  of 
Sentenced  Persons,  the  three  protocols  under  the  CoE's  Convention  on  extradition  and  one 
protocol under the CoE Convention on Mutual assistance in criminal matters, to which it was 

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not yet party. 

Furthermore, Turkey ratified also the CoE Convention on Trafficking in Human Beings and 
adopted  a  by-law  on  trafficking  in  human  beings.  Moreover,  Turkey  ratified  the  CoE 
Convention on the Processing of Personal data and its protocol, and adopted a law on personal 
data protection which, however, is not fully in line with the EU acquis.    

Turkey adopted a single comprehensive law defining the procedures to be followed by all the 
relevant Turkish authorities when implementing Turkey's international obligations related to 
judicial cooperation in criminal matters. Even if this law does not prescribe strict deadlines for 
the completions of the procedures described by the law, and does  not include objective  and 
transparent  criteria  for  the  acceptance  or  rejection  of  the  request  of  cooperation,  it 
nevertheless  represents  a  clear  improvement  which  should  improve  judicial  cooperation  in 
criminal matters between Turkey and the Member States. 

Turkey also made concrete steps to upgrade its working relations with Eurojust and formally 
expressed the firm intention to conclude a cooperation agreement as soon as possible. Pending 
the conclusion of such an agreement, it will be important that the Turkish officers who were 
appointed as liaison officers to the Agency start giving effective follow up to the requests of 
information and cooperation they receive from the other parties.   

In the field of judicial cooperation in civil matters, Turkey ratified on 25 April 2016 both the 
1996  Hague  Convention  on  Jurisdiction,  Applicable  Law,  Recognition,  Enforcement  and 
Cooperation  in  Respect  of  Parental  Responsibility  and  Measures  for  the  Protection  of 
Children, and the 2007 Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and 
Other Forms of Family Maintenance. 

Turkey  has  deposited  the  instruments  of  ratification  of  all  the  Conventions  and  Protocols 
ratified,  except  for  the  two  above  mentioned  Hague  Conventions,  and  for  the  Additional 
Protocol of the CoE Convention on Personal Data Protection, for which this procedure is still 
ongoing and should be completed as soon as possible.  

Finally,  Turkey  took  measures  to  address  the  problem  of  the  delays  experienced  in  the 
implementation  of  the  1980  Hague  Convention  on  civil  aspects  of  the  international  child 
abduction.  Having  understood  that  these  delays  arise  mainly  from  the  appeal  stage  and 
notably by the fact that, in the current system, all the appeals are concentrated in the Supreme 
Court  in  Ankara,  the  High  Council  of  Judges  and  Prosecutors  issued a  decree  on  25  March 
2016 establishing Regional Civil Tribunals in Ankara, Antalya, Erzurum, Gaziantep, İstanbul, 
İzmir and Samsun. The tribunals will deal with the appeal cases and will be operational as of 
20 July 2016.      

Despite these considerable developments, the implementation of the requirements of block 3 
is still less advanced than for blocks 1 and 2. Some important requirements of block 3 remain 
unfulfilled. To  meet these outstanding requirements, Turkey is  invited to take the following 
measures:  

 

 

 

to amend the newly adopted legislation on personal data protection to ensure that it is 
in line with the EU acquis notably to ensure that the data protection authority can act 
in  an  independent  manner  and  that  the  activities  of  law  enforcement  agencies  fall 
within the scope of the law;  

in turn, new legislation on personal data protection will allow Turkey to conclude the 
negotiations of an operational cooperation agreement with Europol; 

to  adopt  legislation  giving  an  effective  follow  up  to  the  recommendations  issued  by 
the  CoE's  Group  of  States  against  Corruption  (GRECO)  under  all  its  evaluation 

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rounds,  notably  legislation  on  the  funding  of  political  parties,  on  immunities,  on 
bribery, and on the independency of judiciary; 

 

to  ensure  judicial  cooperation  with  all  Member  States,  including  by  developing 
working  relations  with their liaison officers deployed  in  Turkey in  order to  facilitate 
the mutual understanding and implementation of the respective procedures, or, when 
such liaison officers are not available, through any other form of communication and 
cooperation suitable to both parties. 

5. BLOCK 4: FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS 

The assessment of the situation under block 4 is similar to that of the situation under block 3: 
Progress  was  made  in  fulfilling  several  requirements,  while  further  progress  is  needed  on 
some outstanding requirements.  

In particular, on 6 April 2016, a Law on Human Rights Institution and Equality, addressing 
inter alia the discrimination for ethnic and racial grounds, was adopted by the Parliament.  

On  26  April  2016,  the  Government  adopted  the  National  strategy  and  an  action  plan 
addressing  key  obstacles  to  the  social  inclusion  of  the  Turkish  population  with  Roma  and 
Roma-like background. 

The  Turkish  authorities  ratified  Protocol  7  of  the  European  Convention  for  Human  Rights, 
and sent information showing that the Turkish national legislation already includes provisions 
equivalent to those required by Protocol 4, which they signed without ratifying.     

Nevertheless, the most important benchmark under Block 4 remains to be addressed, i.e. the 
one  requiring  Turkey  to  "revise  -  in  line  with  the  European  Convention  for  Human  Rights 
(ECHR) and with the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) case law, the EU acquis and 
EU Member States practices - the legal framework as regards organised crime and terrorism, 
as well as its interpretation by the courts and by the security forces and the law enforcement 
agencies, so as to ensure the right to liberty and security, the right to a fair trial and freedom 
of expression, of assembly and association in practice." 

The  Turkish  authorities  will  need  to  address  this  benchmark  as  a  matter  of  urgency.  In  this 
respect, they are invited to better align Turkish legislation on terrorism with the EU, the CoE 
and the ECtHR standards, adopting also guidelines to ensure interpretation by the courts, the 
security  forces  and  the  law  enforcement  agencies  in  line  with  these  standards,  notably  by 
better  aligning  the  definition  of  terrorism  with  that  set  out  in  Framework  Decision 
2002/475/JHA  as  amended  in  order  to  narrow  the  scope  of  the  definition,  by  introducing  a 
criterion of proportionality.  

6. BLOCK 5:  READMISSION OF IRREGULAR MIGRANTS   

Block 5 represents an area of the Roadmap where Turkey has made significant progress since 
the Second Report.  

This is clearly a result of the commitment taken by Turkey at the summit of 18 March 2016. 
As  a  result,  Turkey  now  accepts  to  readmit  all  irregular  migrants  who  arrived  to  the  Greek 
islands  from  Turkey  after  20  March  2016.  The  importance  of  this  step  is  not  to  be 
underestimated,  as  it  contributed  substantially  to  reduce  the  irregular  migration  flows 
departing from the Turkish territory towards the EU. 

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Another  important  development  was  the  decision  to  advance  to  1  June  2016  the  entry  into 
force of the provisions related to the readmission of third country nationals of the EU-Turkey 
readmission agreement, which were initially scheduled to apply as from 1 October 2017.  

Turkey  undertook  preparatory  work  in  view  of  establishing  an  electronic  system  of 
transmission and management of readmission requests with Member States. The system was 
tested at pilot level on 2 May 2016.  

Turkish authorities also adopted a document defining the internal procedures to be followed in 
response to readmission requests, as recommended by the Roadmap.   

Nevertheless, at the moment of issuing this Third Report, a key benchmark under this Block is 
not  yet fulfilled,  i.e. the requirement for Turkey  to  "fully and effectively implement the EU-
Turkey  readmission  agreement  in  all  its  provisions,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  provide  a  solid 
track  record  of  the  fact  that  readmission  procedures  function  properly  in  relation  to  all 
Member States".  

There are two different reasons why this requirement is not yet fulfilled.  

As regards the provisions of the EU-Turkey readmission agreement related to the readmission 
of  nationals  of  the  two  sides,  and  which  are  in  force  already  since  1  October  2014  the 
provisions  have  not  been  enforced  in  a  systematic  and  coherent  manner  by  all  Turkish 
diplomatic  missions  in  the  EU.  On  27  April  2016  the  Turkish  authorities  have  issued 
guidelines to the diplomatic  missions with the view to ensuring that henceforth readmission 
requests are treated in line with the deadlines and the procedures prescribed by the agreement, 
and that reliable statistics of the cases handled are available. 

On the other hand, as regards the provisions of the EU-Turkey readmission agreement which 
are related to the readmission of third country nationals,  the reason why the Commission in 
this Report cannot yet declare this benchmark fulfilled is simply the fact that these provisions 
will enter into force only as of 1 June 2016.  

7. CONCLUSIONS AND THE WAY FORWARD 

While the EU-Turkey Summit of 29 November 2015 already set out an ambitious agenda for 
Turkish authorities aiming for visa liberalisation in autumn 2016, the EU-Turkey Statement of 
18 March further accelerated the process. The Statement announced that "the fulfilment of the 
visa liberalisation roadmap will be accelerated vis-à-vis all participating Member States with 
a  view  to  lifting  the  visa  requirements  for  Turkish  citizens  at  the  latest  by  the  end  of  June 
2016, provided that all benchmarks have been met. To this end Turkey will take the necessary 
steps  to  fulfil  the  remaining  requirements  to  allow  the  Commission  to  make,  following  the 
required assessment of compliance with the benchmarks, an appropriate proposal by the end 
of  April  on  the  basis  of  which  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  can  make  a  final 
decision".  

Building on the new level of engagement and determination demonstrated by Turkey since the 
EU-Turkey  Summit  of  29  November  2015,  in  the  last  months  the  Turkish  authorities  have 
further  intensified  their  efforts  to  fulfil  that  condition.  The  Commission  acknowledges  the 
good progress made by the Turkish authorities so far, and it encourages them to urgently step 
up  these  efforts  to  meet  all  requirements  in  order  to  obtain  visa  liberalisation  by  the  end  of 
June. 

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As indicated in this Report, however, the Turkish authorities have not yet managed to  meet 
this  ambitious  objective,  as  7  requirements  out  of  72  have  not  yet  been  fulfilled.  Some  of 
them are of particular importance.  

Two  of  these  seven  outstanding  requirements  need  for  practical  and  procedural  reasons  a 
longer timeline for implementation, and this has made it impossible for them to be fulfilled in 
a complete manner by the time of the publication of this Report. This concerns the following 
two benchmarks:  

  upgrading  the  existing  biometric  passports  so  as  to  include  security  features  in  line 

 

with the latest EU standards;  
fully implementing the provisions of the EU-Turkey readmission agreement, including 
those related to the readmission of third country nationals.. 

The Commission and the Turkish authorities have agreed on practical ways of implementing 
these benchmarks before their complete fulfilment.  

The  Commission  invites  the  Turkish  authorities  to  urgently  undertake,  following  the 
publication  of  this  report,  the  measures  that  are  necessary  to  fulfil  the  other  outstanding 
benchmarks of the Roadmap, namely:  

  adopting the measures to prevent corruption foreseen by the Roadmap i.e. ensuring an 
effective follow-up to the recommendations issued by the Council of Europe's Group 
of States against Corruption (GRECO). 

  aligning the legislation on personal data protection to EU standards  notably to ensure 
that  the  data  protection  authority  can  act  in  an  independent  manner  and  that  the 
activities of law enforcement agencies fall within the scope of the law;  

  negotiating  an  operational  cooperation  agreement  with  Europol.  This  also  depends 

upon the above changes to the data protection legislation. ;  

  offering effective judicial cooperation in criminal matters to all EU Member States;  
 

revising  the  legislation  and  practices  on  terrorism  in  line  with  European  standards 
notably  by  better  aligning  the  definition  of  terrorism  with  that  set  out  in  Framework 
Decision 2002/475/JHA as amended in order to narrow the scope of the definition and 
by introducing a criterion of proportionality.  

On the understanding that the Turkish authorities will fulfil as a matter of urgency and as they 
committed  to  do  so  on  18  March,  the  outstanding  benchmarks  of  the  Roadmap,  the 
Commission presents together with this Report the proposal to amend Regulation 539/2001 to 
lift  the  visa  requirement  for  Turkish  citizens  holding  a  biometric  passport  in  line  with  EU 
standards.   

In  order  to  assist  the  co-legislators  in  their  deliberations,  the  Commission  will  continue 
monitoring the steps which the Turkish authorities take to fulfil the outstanding requirements 
of the Roadmap.  

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