Can Baydarol
During the 39th Congress of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), its leader Özgür Özel made two pledges that were of professional interest to me. I had previously shared the difficulties of achieving full EU membership in a previous article. Although it would be difficult for Turkey to return to the path of full membership under current conditions, I was pleased to hear the CHP leader state that it remains a goal that must be upheld.
Let us turn to the second promise: visa-free travel to Europe for all Turkish citizens. This is very difficult given the poor performance of the Turkish economy. We must ask ourselves how many Turkish citizens would actually turn up at the EU’s doors if the EU countries were to lift visa requirements for Turkey today. Although visa liberalisation does not bring with it the right to work, i.e. the ‘free movement of workers,’ it inevitably leads us to consider the possibility of illegal immigration. At this point, it is worth emphasising two more facts.
The large number of immigrants coming to Turkey who wish to obtain a Turkish passport and migrate to the EU is a significant obstacle.
The qualifications of those wishing to migrate. If you have a diploma proving that you have received a valid education, the path is already open for you; forget about visa issues, you immediately have a residence permit and the opportunity to work. The best example is the situation of doctors. Naturally, there is no obstacle to the use of young people who have received very expensive education paid for by our taxes, without being a burden on the coffers of EU countries. But what about those without education? The paths are closed.
Is there nothing that can be done?
The history of the work initiated with visa liberalisation goes back quite a long way. If I remember correctly, 66 of the 72 criteria set by the EU have been met, and we have stalled on the last two. The two most important of these are bringing the ‘anti-terrorism’ law into line with EU standards and taking steps within the scope of the Personal Data Protection (KVK) law.
Even if we assume that changes could be made to the counter-terrorism law, which has become the number one topic of debate in our country, especially these days, I believe that the other side will certainly come up with new excuses not to recognise visa liberalisation.
However, there are other aspects of this visa issue that could be turned from negative to positive. In this context, the issue needs to be assessed within the framework of the customs union.
Let us make a brief technical assessment at this point. The customs union is a regime of prohibitions for the countries that are parties to it in the context of liberalising trade between themselves. Within this framework, in their trade with each other, they cannot:
- Impose customs duties
- Implement measures having the same effect as customs duties
- Impose quantitative restrictions, or quotas
- Implement measures having the same effect as quantitative restrictions.
At this point, the importance of properly understanding the second and fourth prohibitions becomes apparent. The weakest link in the Ankara Agreement, which established a partnership between Turkey and the EEC (now the EU), and the customs union established under that agreement, is that while the movement of goods was defined, the transport of goods was addressed under a separate heading, namely ‘services’. Within this framework, transport services have been excluded from the scope of the agreement to date, inevitably leading to the emergence of practices that have the same effect as customs duties and quantitative restrictions.
In a ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union, it was accepted that the transit fees applied to lorries carrying goods, in particular, constitute a type of equivalent tax because they increase the market price of the goods on the lorry.
So, when you get an appointment and have the chance to apply for a visa, shouldn’t you also question whether paying the visa fee is a kind of equivalent tax? At this point, we need to look at the position of two types of citizens of the Republic of Turkey.
- Businesspeople and employees. Restricting producers and those representing producers through visa requirements at points where goods circulate freely, and the fees charged for visas, constitute a violation of the second and fourth prohibitions mentioned above.
- Drivers transporting goods. In this context, we are again faced with a violation of the same prohibitions. In particular, the reason for suspending a significant portion of the negotiation chapters initiated in relation to Turkey’s full membership was Turkey’s closure of its ports and airports to the ships and aircraft of the Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus (GCASC). The EU’s main argument was the obstacles imposed on the entry of GCASC goods into Turkey. At the time, it was said, ‘Goods circulate freely, but if there are no ships and aircraft, will those goods come to Turkey with their hands and arms swinging?’ At this point, it is worth reminding the EU of what it said about Cyprus at the time regarding the visa restrictions imposed on lorry drivers (either visa refusal or issuing very short-term visas).
To get to the point without digressing too much.
The complete abolition of visas is not something that can be achieved overnight. We need to be realistic at this point. The propaganda rhetoric may sound good, but we must admit that it is empty rhetoric.
If I recall correctly, during Davutoğlu’s six-month tenure as Prime Minister, the visa issue was raised during a visit to Brussels in 2016. While the EU side emphasised that, although not complete freedom, visa facilitation could be introduced for certain professional groups, Davutoğlu rejected this offer with an ‘all or nothing’ approach.
So, if we were to make the same proposal to the EU today, in other words, if we were to request visa facilitation and long-term visas for ‘business people, transport drivers, students, academics, journalists, athletes, artists, etc.’, what do you think the EU’s response would be?
With Turkey’s strategic importance to the EU’s security, energy route security, and supply chain sustainability increasing so much, do you think negotiating the visa issue is insignificant?
We will try to evaluate the issue of supply chain sustainability and the visa problem in our next article.