The European Court of Justice maintains restrictions on the immigration or visits of Turkish citizens to the EU, even if this contradicts the freedom to provide services regulated in special laws.

As a result, each member country can still restrict the immigration or entry of Turkish citizens itself. The national entry restrictions are thus rated higher than the economic cooperation agreed in an association agreement.

Leyla Ecem Demirkan, a Turkish citizen

The verdict goes back to a case involving a Turkish woman. Leyla Ecem Demirkan, a Turkish citizen, complained that the German authorities had refused her a visa. For the visit to a family member in Germany, she asserted the association agreement between the EU and Turkey on the one hand and the freedom to provide services within the EU on the other. Accordingly, she would have to be entitled to use a service in an EU country. According to an earlier ECJ ruling, no distinction should be made between active and passive freedom to provide services.

The ECJ did not share this reasoning. Freedom of movement within the EU only applies to EU citizens and is not part of the association agreement concluded with Turkey in 1963, according to the judges. Free entry based on the freedom to provide services is also not given. The aim of the association agreement is not to promote the European internal market, but to promote economic development in Turkey.

In fact, the agreement between the EU and Turkey provides that the contracting parties will be guided by the provisions of the EEC Treaty on the provision of services between Member States in order to lift restrictions between themselves. There is also an additional protocol from 1970 which expressly excludes new restrictions on the freedom to provide services.

Accession candidates Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia

After this judgment, which has been eagerly awaited in Turkey, Ankara is likely to increase the pressure on the EU. The Turkish government has been calling for the visa requirement to be abolished for years. Since the citizens of the accession candidates Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia have been allowed to travel freely to the member states of the European Union since 2009, Turkey feels disadvantaged. The government in Ankara has repeatedly linked a return agreement for rejected asylum seekers with the granting of visa-free travel. Ankara is rightly pushing for freedom of travel.

We have already reported several times on the problem of freedom of travel for Turkish citizens, which leads to considerable problems and burdens, especially for business people, which in turn is in absolute contradiction to the good business relationships between companies in both countries. Why one is not able to distinguish between business travellers and vacationers on the one hand and asylum seekers on the other hand remains a question. The time is long gone when Turkish travellers with asylum seekers had to be listed in one category. And anyone who wants to enter the EU will find ways and opportunities. These visa regulations in no way prevent illegal immigration or the manipulation of people who have already entered the country.

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