PURPOSE: to amend Council Regulation (EC) No 539/2001
in order to allow Turkish nationals to be exempted from the visa
requirement when travelling to the EU Member States.
PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament
and of the Council.
ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European
Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative
procedure and on an equal footing with the Council.
BACKGROUND: Council
Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 lists the third countries whose
nationals must be in possession of a visa when crossing the
external borders of the Member States and those whose nationals are
exempt from that requirement. It is applied by all Member States
with the exception of Ireland and the United Kingdom
and also by Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and
Switzerland.
Turkey is currently listed in Annex I of Regulation
(EC) No 539/2001, i.e. among those
countries whose nationals are required to hold a visa when
travelling to the territory of EU Member States.
On 16 December 2013 the European Union (EU) and Turkey
launched the Visa Liberalisation Dialogue (VLD), in parallel with
the signature of the EU-Turkey Readmission Agreement.
The dialogue is based on the Roadmap towards a
visa free regime with Turkey, a document setting out the
requirements that Turkey needs to meet in order to allow Turkish
citizens holding biometric passports in line with EU standards to
travel to the Member States without a visa for short stays (i.e. up
to 90 days within any 180-day period).
Following the EU-Turkey Summits on 29 November 2015
and on 18 March 2016, it was agreed 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 nationals at the latest by the end of June
2016.
The Commission invites the Turkish authorities to
urgently undertake the measures that are necessary to fulfil the
other outstanding benchmarks of the Roadmap, namely:
- upgrading the existing biometric
passports;
- fully implementing the provisions of the EU-Turkey
readmission agreement;
- adopting the measures to prevent
corruption;
- aligning the legislation on personal data protection
to EU standards;
- negotiating an operational cooperation agreement with
Europol;
- offering effective judicial cooperation in criminal
matters to all EU Member States;
- revising the legislation and practices on terrorism in
line with European standards.
On the understanding that the Turkish authorities
shall fulfil, as a matter of urgency and as they committed to do so
on 18 March 2016, the outstanding benchmarks of the Roadmap, the
Commission has decided to present the proposal to amend Regulation
(EC) No 539/2001 to lift the visa requirement for Turkish citizens
who are holders of a biometric passport in line with EU
standards.
CONTENT: the Commission proposes to amend Regulation
(EC) No 539/2001 by transferring Turkey from Annex I (list of
visa-required countries) to Annex II (list of visa-free
countries). In line with the Roadmap, a footnote will be added
specifying that the visa exemption applies to holders of
biometric passports issued in line with the standards of Council
Regulation (EC) No 2252/2004, in particular with encryption of
fingerprints by Supplementary Access Control (SAC).
Turkey has informed the Commission that it will
complete all necessary reforms to issue fully EU-compliant
biometric passports by the end of 2016. Therefore the visa
exemption will exceptionally also apply to holders of biometric
passports to be issued in line with standards of the International
Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), provided that they were issued
between 1 June 2016 and 31 December 2016. This exception will
expire on 31 December 2017.