Turkish business leaders are rising more and more annoyed over visa restrictions imposed on businesspeople in search of to journey to European Union nations, a row that has been straining already delicate relations.
Businesspeople and residents have been complaining of prolonged processing occasions and a rising variety of EU visa rejections lately. Ankara has known as the efforts “deliberate,” whereas officers from each side have sought methods to interact in dialogue to resolve the matter.
Şekib Avdagiç, the pinnacle of the Istanbul Chamber of Commerce (ITO), identified the inconsistency of the European Union, criticizing the way it each complains about China’s industrial stress and but finds excuses to grant short-term visas or no visas in any respect to Turkish businesspeople who might assist remedy provide chain points.
“We tell European diplomats that you are not allowing our businesspeople, who want to purchase machinery, to come to your countries. Then you complain when they buy machines from China. You are harming yourselves,” Avdagiç advised reporters on the sidelines of the SIAL Paris Food Fair on Wednesday.
The business neighborhood, he defined, is more and more exasperated by the bureaucratic hurdles concerned in securing Schengen visas – a system that was as soon as thought of routine however has now was an impediment for a lot of.
The concern is now impacting commerce relations and pushing companies to look elsewhere for his or her wants.
Top officers, together with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have been working intensively to handle the problem with their European counterparts, in keeping with Avdagiç. Yet, the issue persists.
“This is an issue that can only be solved at the state level,” Avdagiç stated. “But we also frequently share our perspective with high-ranking EU officials and hope for progress in the near future.”
One of the principle points Avdagiç highlighted is what he described as a “circular problem.” EU officers have cited the rising variety of visa purposes and issues about overstays as causes for the restrictive insurance policies. However, Avdagiç insists that each explanations are flawed.
“They first tell us that visa applications have increased and that they can’t keep up. Then they tell us the number of those with visas who do not return has increased too much,” he stated, “but that’s not the real issue. What’s happening is that short-term visas – often for one week, a month, three months or six months – are forcing people to reapply constantly, creating duplication.”
“There is no surge in new applicants; it’s the same people, applying again and again,” Avdagiç stated.
Days in the past, Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, the president of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB), stated the visa and quota issues had a damaging impression on relations and known as for the problem to be solved “urgently.”
For a long time, Türkiye and the bloc have loved good commerce ties and cooperation on migration. However, relations have been strained over a number of points, together with the extended technique of modernization and enlargement of the scope of the present customs union settlement and EU insurance policies on refugees from Syria.
Avdagiç emphasised that the European Union’s use of the refugee concern as a justification for the visa downside is contradictory and lacks technical validity.
“You claim that people come and stay as refugees. What difference does it make if you grant them a one-week or a 10-year visa? If they intend to stay, they’ll stay. The visa length is irrelevant. In our view, there is no technical basis for this reasoning,” he famous.
Source: www.dailysabah.com