JOOST LAGENDIJK
Eroding the rock ^^ JOOST LAGENDIIK Everybody knows that even the most solid rock will eventually be eroded if drips of water keep falling incessantly on the same spot. This law of physics also applies to politics and law. One of the most rock-hard pieces of European legislation is the body of rules and regulations on granting visas to people from outside of the European Union who want to visit one of the EU member states for a maximum of three months. Every Turkish businessman, student and tourist who wants to enter the EU is affected negatively by these cumbersome visa procedures that sometimes turn into humiliating confrontations. Many have lost business opportunities, failed to attend conferences or even missed the chance to study abroad just because visas were not issued in time. Having this system still in place for Turkish citizens even as the country has been in negotiations with the EU for full membership for five years is incredibly frustrating for many Turks. It has often been pointed out to me, during private conversations or at public discussions, as the most obvious example of European insincerity and unreliability.
Although many European politicians and policymakers know very well that in the long run the present situation is untenable, they are still doing their utmost to resist change or postpone adjustments to the present visa regime. Especially in countries such as Germany and the Netherlands, defending the existing restrictive rules is seen by conservative politicians as the best way to show that they have understood the populist anti-migration demands from a growing part of the electorate. But the visa rock is suffering from a growing number of legal drips that threaten to create major holes. Last week a Dutch court in Haarlem ruled that Turkish businessman Cahil Yilmaz, who lives and works in the Netherlands, does not need a visa to enter the country. The court based its ruling on a crucial decision of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in 2009 in the so-called “Soysal” case. Mehmet Soysal and Ibrahim Savath worked as drivers for a Turkish company, driving trucks owned by a German company. When their visa renewal applications were denied by a Berlin court, they filed an appeal at a higher court, which decided to refer the case to the ECJ. In February 2009 the ECJ ruled that visas were not required for Turkish citizens for whom such a restriction did not apply in 1973 when an Additional Protocol to the Association Agreement between the EU and Turkey entered into force. To put it simply, this agreement stipulated that if an EU member state did not have a visa regime in 1973; it was not allowed to introduce one after that date. Because no country in 1973 obliged Turks to get visas, all the new restrictive rules that were put in place in the ’80s and ’90s are not, according to the ECJ, legal and should therefore be abolished.
I was still a member of the European Parliament at that time and organized a meeting concerning the repercussions of the ECJ rule in Strasbourg.
The lawyers in the SoysaJ case were there andof course Professor Haluk Kabaalioglu, the dean of the Faculty of Law at Yeditepe University and a long-time defender of visa-free travel for Turkish nationals to the EU.
The European Commission, which is supposed to uphold these kinds of ECJ rulings, did not want to comment in public, while the German and Dutch representatives that we invited declined to come. All of the absentees knew that the Soysal case could be a turning point, but nobody dared say so. Since then, both the commission and the most affected member states have tried to postpone formulating clear conclusions. Legal experts are disputing some of the details in the ruling. Policymakers in Brussels and Berlin hope to be able to combine this dossier with a discussion on the readmission agreement that Turkey and the EU have recently concluded. The drips keep falling on the rock. It will take some more court rulings in individual cases to keep up the pressure. The EU might be able to stall for some more time. But the visa rock has started to be eroded. There’s no stopping it.