"Regarding progress made on the remaining benchmarks of the visa-liberalization dialogues, what we have informed you here previously, [is] that Turkey has over the past weeks signed two additional legislation related to these benchmarks notably on the EU-Turkey readmission agreement and also a law related to the benchmark on data protection and we will in the coming weeks of June take stock of the state of play on the implementation of EU-Turkey statement in a report which will be presented during the course of the month of June," Ernst said during a press briefing.
Ankara and Brussels are currently in talks on visa liberalization. The European Union has put forward 72 requirements for Turkey to comply with. Most of the requirements have already been fulfilled by Ankara, though some problematic criteria remain, including the revision of Turkey’s national anti-terrorism laws, freedom of the press, measures on combating corruption, judicial cooperation with all European Union member countries.
On May 6, the Turkish president said that Ankara would not revise its anti-terrorism legislation under the EU-Turkey deal on migration. On May 29, European Parliament President Martin Schulz said that visa-free regime between Turkey and the 28-nation bloc would be possible only if Ankara fulfilled all 72 EU requirements.
