Luxembourg PM Juncker Extends Support to Turkey for Visa-free Travel

Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean Claude Juncker has lent support to Turkey’s demands that the European Union initiate talks on a visa-free travel regime for Turkish citizens.

Turkey’s EU accession negotiations should be accelerated and the bloc should ease visa restrictions for Turks to demonstrate commitment to the country’s membership bid, Juncker said Thursday after meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

“We fully share the Turkish government’s position on the visa issue,” Juncker said. “We would like [to see] the readmission agreement and the visa issue resolved simultaneously in a way that would satisfy both sides.”

Ankara has warned it will shelve a draft deal with the EU on the readmission of illegal immigrants, concluded in January, unless the bloc starts talks on a visa-free travel regime for Turkish nationals. With several million Turkish workers already in EU countries, Turkey has long complained that its nationals are denied visa-free travel, a benefit other membership candidates enjoyed in the past.

Exceptional gesture

Following a dinner with his Luxembourg counterpart, Erdoğan broke the protocol routine to invite Juncker to his car and see him off at Ankara’s Esenboğa Airport, from where the visiting premier flew to Istanbul. The gesture was meant to return a similar display of courtesy by Juncker when Erdoğan visited Luxembourg in 2002. Erdoğan at the time held only the title of ruling party chairman owing to a political ban that had prevented him from assuming the prime minister’s post after his Justice and Development Party, or AKP, came to power.

September 9, 2011
SOURCE: HURRIYET DAILY NEWS