EU backs Turkey visa deal, with provisos
The European Commission (EC) has this week given its conditional backing for Turkish citizens to receive visa-free travel inside the Schengen area—an area of 26 European countries with a common visa policy.
If approved by the European Parliament and member states, the deal—offered in return for Turkey controlling the flow of refugees and migrants across the Aegean Sea to Greece—could take effect from July. Without it, it is feared that Turkey will not control migration.
The deal would grant Turkish citizens the right to travel to and remain in any EU member state—except for those six countries that are not part of Schengen area, which include Ireland and the UK—for up to 90 days at a time without needing a visa. It would not, however, grant Turkish citizens the right to work in Europe.
The EC has also outlined several benchmarks Turkey still needs to meet, they include:
passing measures to prevent corruption, in line with EU recommendations;
- aligning national legislation on personal data protection with EU standards;
- concluding an agreement with Europol;
- working with all EU members on judicial cooperation;
- bringing the country’s terror legislation in line with European standards.
Managing flows of refugees is a contentious issue. In his IZA World of Labor article on setting asylum policy, Tim Hatton suggests that offering asylum should be portrayed as a “public good.” He proposes that Europe should share the burden across several member states, commenting that “such policies are economically desirable and are more politically feasible than is sometimes believed.”
Meanwhile, Jesús Fernández-Huertas Moraga asks whether market mechanisms can solve the refugee crisis. He writes that: “A way to distribute refugees efficiently, while respecting their rights, is to combine two market mechanisms. First, a market for tradable refugee admission quotas that allows refugees to be established wherever it is less costly to do so. Second, a matching system that links refugees to their preferred destinations, and host countries to their preferred types of refugees. The proposal is efficient but has yet to be tested in practice.”
Related articles:
Setting policy on asylum: Has the EU got it right?, by Tim Hatton
Can market mechanisms solve the refugee crisis?, by Jesús Fernández-Huertas Moraga
Find more IZA World of Labor articles on migration policy