A European Union
draft document, which is expected to be released after a Nov. 29
meeting with Turkey and has been seen by daily Hürriyet, has set October
2016 as the target date for visa exemption for Turkish citizens.
The European Union’s Committee of Permanent Representatives (COREPER) was set to study the document on Nov. 26.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu
was expected to join the meeting with the European Union, where
relations and a joint program for migrants to Turkey will be handled.
The European Union
will prepare a report in March 2016 on the situation of a readmission
agreement, which basically covers third-country citizens who traveled to
Europe from Turkey, and visa liberalization, which is closely linked to the readmission deal.
Turkey
is scheduled to fully implement the readmission agreement with all EU
member countries as of June 2016, which requires the country to
recognize Greek
Cyprus. Both Turkish diplomacy sources and EU authorities have said
they aim for a solution on the divided Cyprus by spring next year.
The
document will also welcome European Commission preparation for Turkey’s
EU membership talks on chapters covering “energy,” “the judiciary and
basic rights,” “justice, freedom and security,” “education and culture”
and “foreign, security and defense policies.”
The draft also
highlights that a previously decided 3 billion euros of support to
Turkey for refugees is a starter amount. Some 500 million euros of the
support will be met by the EU budget, while the financing of the
remainder will be decided by Dec. 21.
Turkey currently hosts around 2 million refugees who have fled the civil war in neighboring Syria.
