EU suspends plans to extend visa-free travel to Turkey
Source: Deutsche Welle
Turkey has already agreed to take back refugees who have already used it as a transit country to enter Europe, in exchange for the visa-free deal, but the EU believes Ankara will not be able to implement reforms on freedom of the press and the judiciary by June 30.
Turkey's 75 million citizens would have the right to enter the Schengen zone for up to 90 days at a time with biometric passports from the end of June.
The EU has a list of 72 requirements that Ankara needs to meet to obtain visa-free travel, with reform of anti-terror legislation another of the five remaining key steps, along with the protection of personal data. "The questions I had in this connection have not been fully cleared up," Merkel said.
Terrorists would be more likely to attack EU countries as a result of the deal to allow Turkish citizens to travel across the continent without visas, EU leaders said last week.
Read more: http://www.dw.com/en/eu-suspends-plans-to-extend-visa-free-travel-to-turkey/a-19278074
= new reply since forum marked as read
