Meetings of high-ranking officials were held to discuss steps steps to be taken regarding the visa facilitation process for Turkish citizens.
In this regard, the European embassies have promised to take further steps to resolve visa problems.
“We will try to increase the number of our staff and obtain technical support from visa intermediary agencies. We will also open an emergency visa channel, especially for the business world and students, — several embassies in Ankara assured in this regard.
Earlier it was reported that Turkish citizens face significant problems when applying for Schengen visas to travel to European countries. First of all, we are talking about the timing of consideration of applications and countless requests for additional documents.
According to representatives of the Turkish Foreign Ministry, the authorities of European countries received a total of 1.2 million visa applications in 2019. During the pandemic — in 2020 — their number was reduced to 200 & nbsp; 000. Many EU countries have closed their embassies and consulates, reduced staff, thus artificially reducing the number of applications.
The total number of applications this year has reached 3.5 million, taking into account pent-up demand.
In Last year EU and Turkish officials already discussed the visa liberalization process for Turkish citizens. The goal of the talks was to allow more than 20 million Turkish citizens to visit European countries for the purpose of tourism, as well as participate in other industries in Europe, including business and transport. However, despite the constant attempts made in this direction, most of the issues have not been resolved.