EU puts brake on visa waiver for Georgia, Turkey should expect same

EU puts brake on visa waiver for Georgia, Turkey should expect same

PanARMENIAN.Net - European Union states held off agreeing to ease travel rules for Georgia on Wednesday, June 1, and Turkey, Ukraine and Kosovo should also expect more delays in visa waiving as the bloc turns more cautious amid immigration fears, EU delegation sources said, according to Reuters.

The EU is already making it easier to suspend visa-free travel before it grants such right to more states, most notably Turkey, whose help it needs to control immigration after some 1.3 million people reached Europe last year.

While Brussels says Turkey, with a population of 79 million, is making progress on 72 criteria to win the EU visa waiver, Ankara is seen missing an end-June deadline.

EU envoys in Brussels discussed a similar deal for Georgia again on Wednesday but there was no decision, with Germany and France among countries opposed, diplomats said.

"We don't want to stop the whole process. We just want to be more cautious," said a diplomat from one EU state that on Wednesday opposed granting visa-free travel to Georgia, Reuters reports.

They may return to the issue next week, before holding their first discussion on the more controversial case of Ukraine. More technical-level meetings on Ukraine are due only on June 14.

While the lawmakers have started work on Ukraine and Georgia, the parliament's head said they would not open the Turkey file before Ankara met all the benchmarks. Some in the parliament, however, believe it will be a political call.

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