13 May 2016•Update: 14 May 2016
BRUSSELS
Turkey's EU Minister Volkan Bozkir said Friday that the European Commission holds the key to solving the visa liberalization crisis with the EU.
The European Parliament on Wednesday halted the visa liberalization process for Turkish citizens in the Schengen zone, citing Turkey’s failure to fulfill the necessary criteria.
Speaking to reporters in Brussels following a meeting with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Neighborhood and Enlargement Negotiations Commissioner Johannes Hahn, Bozkir said: “This is really unacceptable for us. The [European] Parliament has no legal right to halt the process.”
Saying that the matter should have been referred to the Commission, Bozkir said it was up to the EC to remove the deadlock, and this was actually possible if the EC declared that Turkey had fulfilled five key criteria.
"When we get back to Turkey, we will discuss what can be done regarding these five expectations, in particular,” he said.
"We would like to continue the process without causing any tension. However, we need the EU to really understand how critical the position we are in is."
Last week, the European Commission proposed visa-free Schengen zone travel for Turks as part of a deal which would see Turkey stem the refugee flow to Europe in exchange for speeding up the candidate country’s EU membership.
However, among five remaining benchmarks for Turkey to address in order to receive visa-free travel, the EU has called for changes to Ankara's legislation on terrorism – a demand criticized and rejected by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
On Wednesday, European Parliament President Martin Schulz said he halted the process as Turkey had yet to meet five criteria.
The remaining four benchmarks concern passing anti-corruption measures, aligning current legislation on data protection with EU standards, cooperating with Europe’s police agency Europol. and judicial cooperation with all EU member states.
