Lord Willoughby de Broke – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Willoughby de Broke on 2015-12-07.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they were consulted on the EU–Turkey deal that will allow Turkish citizens visa-free access to the Schengen area and which provided for three billion euros of aid to Turkey over two years.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

The UK played an influential role in shaping the EU-Turkey summit on 29 November where these issues were discussed. The Prime Minister, my right Hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), attended the summit, where the EU and Turkey agreed to step up cooperation on the many common issues that we face. We welcomed the clear message the summit sent of the importance the EU attaches to its wide-ranging partnership with Turkey. Turkey is a key partner in the EU’s response to the migration crisis and we commend its generosity in ably hosting over 2.2 million refugees from the crisis in Syria and Iraq. A funding package of €3 billion will help ease the refugee burden on Turkey whilst preventing further uncontrolled migration to the EU. Any progress in Turkey’s visa-liberalisation roadmap will not directly affect the UK as we do not participate in the immigration and border aspects of the Schengen acquis.