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EU Positively Assesses Turkey’s Visa Liberalization Roadmap – Source

ANKARA (Sputnik) - Turkey and an EU delegation have completed negotiations on visa liberalization, during which the European Commission positively assessed Ankara’s roadmap for the issue, with the parties agreeing to proceed with talks on technical issues, a source in the Turkish Foreign Ministry told Sputnik on Friday.
Sputnik

"The European Commission views our working plan as a positive step toward the fulfillment of the remaining criteria … During the meeting, the relevant [Turkish] agencies provided the European Commission delegation with detailed information on our proposals, [the sides] also exchanged opinions on steps that could be made with regard to some technical regulations," the source said.

He added that the EU delegation had requested additional information on the working plan’s technical issues.

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On Thursday, the EU delegation arrived in Turkey for a two-day visit as part of the Visa Liberalization Dialogue between the two sides. The talks focused on technical details of the Turkish-drafted roadmap for the fulfillment of the remaining criteria for visa liberalization, which it submitted to Brussels back in February.

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According to the previous assessments by Brussels, Ankara was yet to meet seven criteria out of 72 benchmarks to obtain visa-free access to the Schengen zone.

In March 2016, the European Union and Ankara agreed on a deal, under which Turkey pledged to take back all undocumented migrants who arrive in the European Union through its territory in exchange for Syrian refugees accommodated in Turkey, on a one-for-one basis.

READ MORE: EU Migration Head: EU-Turkey in 'Final Stage' of Talks on Visa-Free Travel

The European Union vowed to accelerate the Turkish EU accession bid, introduce a visa-free regime, as well as provide financial aid to Turkey to cover the costs of migrant reception.

One of the sticking points in the visa liberalization dialogue has been the EU demand for Turkey to amend its counterterrorism legislation.

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