Meeting of the Committee for Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs on the third Report on progress by Turkey in fulfilling the requirements of its visa liberalisation roadmap, during the EP plenary session (09-12 May 2016) in Strasbourg. Statements by Timothy KIRKHOPE (ECR, UK), LIBE Committee chair, Ana GOMES (S&amp;D, PT), Monika HOHLMEIER (EPP, DE), Birgit SIPPEL (S&amp;D, DE), Cecilia WIKSTR&Ouml;M (ALDE, SE), Kostas CHRYSOGONOS (GUE/NGL, EL) and Marta CYGAN, Director, Strategy and Delivery Steering Directorate General Home Affairs of the European Commission.&nbsp;

Strasbourg

debate

meeting

EU - Türkiye (T)

Enlargement to Türkiye (T)

Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

SIPPEL, Birgit (S&D, DE)

WIKSTRÖM, Cecilia (ALDE, SE)

GOMES, Ana (S&D, PT)

HOHLMEIER, Monika (EPP, DE)

CHRYSOGONOS, Kostas (GUE/NGL, EL)

KIRKHOPE, Timothy (ECR, UK)

Third report on progress by Turkey in fulfilling the requirements of its visa liberalisation roadmap: extracts of the debate (recorded 9/05/2016)

SOUNDBITE (English), Timothy KIRKHOPE (ECR, UK), acting LIBE chair, Any advancement on Turkey being granted liberalisation has to be as a result of strictly meeting the criteria and the requirements on the road map. I don't think it is a question of getting close to meeting the requirements or saying that they may be met at some point on the future, I think they have to be met before liberalisation is granted.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ana GOMES (S&amp;D, PT), What I would have like to hear from the legal services is whether indeed - whatever that its, that is there on the table - indeed complies with the international obligations of our member states and of the Union, namely in what concers the UN Convention on Refugees, because obviously it doesn't! It flies in the face of the obligations. And definitely, member states are liable and not just Greece, for the violation of Human rights that are already occurring.

SOUNDBITE (German), Monika HOHLMEIER (EPP, DE), I welcome the suspension mechanism, which gets closer to what is realistically needed. That is very positive proposal for my point of view. If we go to pursue visa liberalisation, then those countries with whom we are pursuing it have to be kept to the facts, and they have to stick with the agreements. Concerning the proposal that the EU should bring back refugees from Turkey, I'm interested to know whether this selection process can be accelerated so that there are legal channels for people to come to Europe.

SOUNDBITE (English), Birgit SIPPEL (S&amp;D, DE), Can we be sure that Turkey is ready to give biometric passports in the long run really to every citizen? Or only to some of them they do like? I would like to see more progress in praxis than only on paper.

SOUNDBITE (English), Cecilia WIKSTR&#214;M (ALDE, SE), I'm also a bit surprised that the progress report doesn't contain a single word about the political development in Turkey. Although its goes through a list of a couple of legislative measures, one wonders if the Commission has completely missed the fact that the repression of the Kurdish and other minorities is increasing? The repression of academics, of authors, poets, bloggers, and basically any intellectual that opposes Mr.Erdogan, goes on. On the block of fundamental rights, the EC concludes in what must be the understatement of this century, and I quote: "that further progress in needed on some outstanding requirements" - end of quote. This is funny when you read it but at the end it is a tragedy.

SOUNDBITE (English), Cecilia WIKSTR&Ouml;M (ALDE, SE), The block related to migration management in the Commission report is fully positive. Does not even give a single hint about inconvenient facts such as the shooting to death of refugees at the Turkish border. The EC is clear about the fact that Turkey does not entirely fulfil the criteria. Erdogan has been clear is stating that 'Turkey does not intend to fulfil the criteria '. Still for some reason we have a proposal to give Turkey visa free status.

SOUNDBITE (Greek), Kostas CHRYSOGONOS (GUE/NGL, EL), The re-admission agreement was signed, but Turkey has refused to implement its vis-a-vis a third country of the EU, visa-a-vis Cyprus. How can we have an '&agrave; la carte' agreement for Turkey which is implementing it also '&agrave; la carte' and having Turkey unpunished ? Can we trust Turkey? How can we trust that they will supposedly implement these 72 criterias?

SOUNDBITE (English), Marta CYGAN, Director, Strategy and Delivery Steering Directorate General Home Affairs of the European Commission , In the first place, - there is a need to increase- measures concerning the fight against corruption and prevention against corruption. Here it is about ensuring an effective follow-up to the recommendations issued by the 'Gregor' group - Council of Europe Group of States Against Corruption. The second important element concerns the legislation on data protection. Lining this legislation with EU standards, in order to ensure that first data protection authority can act in an independent manner, and that the activities of the law enforcement agencies fall within the scope of the law.

SOUNDBITE (English), Marta CYGAN, Ensuring the effective judicial cooperation in criminal matters with all EU member States, and the last one, concerning terrorism, here I'm referring t the revision of both the legislation and practices on terrorism, in line with the EU standards.