#Turkey: European Parliament's largest party says visa rules must not be watered down

“The EU-Turkey agreement is proof that Europe works and that Europe can bring results despite the criticism from various sides”, said Manfred Weber MEP, Chairman of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, during the debate on the legal aspects, democratic control and implementation of the EU-Turkey settlement.

“We are moving forward and we are making progress. We stopped the uncontrolled flow of migrants and it is the Member States who are deciding who enters Europe. This is a major success, also against populist voices and concerns. Europe is keeping its promises”, continued Weber.

"Nevertheless, Europe has to continue taking action on the issues of the agreement for example on visa liberalisation. We need to make progress on establishing smart borders. We have to know who is coming to Europe and how long they are staying. We need progress on the FRONTEX issue in order to defend our external borders, especially when a Member State is not in the position to defend its borders.”

"On visa liberalisation, we are pushing for a review of the emergency mechanisms that are available in the case that states don’t respect the visa waiver regime. There will be no watering-down of the rules on refugees and this applies not only to Turkey but to all the countries with which we have visa arrangements. If a country doesn’t comply with the rules then we should be able to suspend the free visa arrangement and re-impose visas. This is a very import_ant part of the agreement and citizens have to clearly understand this."