Miroslav Lajcak labels EU-Turkey visa regime cancelation in June unrealistic
The EU planned to cancel the visa regime for Turkish citizens, yet Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia, Miroslav Lajcak considers this unrealistic.
Slovakia will hold the EU Council of Ministers Presidency until July 2016.
“We should follow the rules, the preconditions must be fulfilled. In case of Turkey there 72 of them, they still need to meet the remaining 7, particularly they need to revise the anti-terrorist law,” RIA Novosti quotes Lajcak.
He also noted that they need to focus on the fulfilment of the preconditions rather than the date of cancelation of the visa regime.
“If the preconditions are met, EU will fulfil its promise,” the Minister said.
Earlier, Turkey’s Erdoğan threatened the EU that Turkey would block laws related to the landmark deal to stem the flow of migrants to Europe if Ankara was not granted its key demand of visa-free travel within the bloc. In his turn, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker blasted Turkey’s attempt to blackmail Brussels over the migrant crisis by threatening to rip up an agreement to bring the refugee flow under control if it does not get its own way.