The Turkish businesses have voiced their concerns over additional requirements that their employees are being required to meet in order to be granted Schengen visas for entering the bloc for business purposes.
According to business leaders, the member states are now demanding that Turkish companies submit a mandatory three-month bank record for their employees to be issued a visa, Schengen.News reports.
Since this new requirement is being applied in addition to the existing rules under which Schengen visa applicants need to provide personal bank and income statements, Turkish business leaders said that this is an economic embargo and a violation of international trade law, Türkiye Today explains.
Businesspeople Unable to Meet With Potential Customers Due to Visa Issues, Turkish Exporter Says
Commenting on the new controversial requirements, a Turkish exporter said that due to these rules, they are unable to meet with potential customers.
The same highlighted that the employees are the ones who are being hurt the most and said that this is not security but rather a direct economic embargo, blocking their ability to do business in the EU.
We can’t even meet with potential customers. Our employees’ visas are being rejected because we won’t share our company information. This isn’t security—it’s a direct economic embargo.
Industry representatives have also commented on the matter. They said that the three-month translation records include sensitive information and condemned the forced disclosure of “trade secrets”.
As for legal experts, they stressed that requiring such sensitive corporate financial information is in violation of the Türkiye’s Personal Data Protection Law and international data protection regulations.
The same said that this particular requirement is especially devastating for small and medium businesses as it is preventing them from taking part in trade fairs and business meetings in the EU.
EU Continuously Criticised Over Strict Visa Rules for Turkish Businesspeople
This is not the first time that the EU has been criticised for the Schengen visa rules it keeps in place for Turkish businesspeople.
Earlier in January of this year, the president of the Foreign Economic Relations Board, Nail Olpak, said that the EU authorities have failed to resolve the visa problems that businesspeople from Türkiye face when wanting to reach the bloc for business purposes.
Olpak said that even though Türkiye and the EU have commenced negotiations on visa facilitation, businesspeople are still facing hurdles and expect both parties to take additional measures to remedy the situation.
The president of the International Transporters Association, Şerafettin Aras, also expressed concern about the visa issues. He said that the strict visa rules for Turkish truck drivers are damaging trade relationships while stressing that the measures are penalising the EU too.