EU-Turkey: Historic agreement on the readmission of immigrants

The agreement was reached at the meeting between Ahmet Davutoğlu and Internal Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström - Lifting of visa issuance for Turkish citizens as consideration

On December 16th Turkey will sign the agreement on readmission of illegal immigrants entering the EU in exchange for the initiation of the visa waiver for Turkish citizens.

This agreement was reached at a meeting held in the Belgian capital of Brussels where Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoğlu met with Commissioner for Internal Affairs Cecilia Malmström.

Davutoglu spoke of a historic day which paves the way for the lifting of visas for Turkish citizens when traveling in the EU in no later than 3.5 years.

"The will of our working together has allowed us to overcome the differences that we had last year," Malmström said, and added that the implementation of the readmission agreement is a precondition for lifting the visa and Turkey should satisfy a number of conditions relating to safety records, migration management, public order and fundamental rights.