سفير تركيا
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In 2025, practical issues involving visas and the customs union offered a route for progress in Türkiye–EU relations, while accession negotiations remained stalled.
Two developments attracted attention:
- more favourable rules for some Turkish applicants for Schengen visas;
- further work on electronic A.TR movement certificates, described in policy analysis as a technical bridge that might support wider cooperation on the customs union and visas.
The European Union adopted more favourable rules on 15 July 2025.
- The new arrangements applied to Turkish citizens who lived and applied in Türkiye, had an established lawful travel history, and sought short-stay Schengen visas. Truck drivers were excluded from this particular regime.
- Eligible applicants could receive multiple-entry visas.
- The progression could lead to a one-year visa, followed by three-year and then five-year visas, subject to lawful use and sufficient passport validity. A one-year visa could follow two visas obtained and lawfully used within the previous three years.
- The practical aim was to make repeat travel easier:
- longer-validity visas can reduce the need for repeated applications;
- they can also reduce the repeated administrative burden on travellers who continue to meet the requirements. The new cascade rules did not themselves guarantee faster appointments, shorter processing times or exemption from supporting documents.
- This was a form of visa facilitation, rather than visa-free access:
- Turkish citizens covered by the ordinary short-stay visa requirement still needed a visa;
- the arrangements could help eligible business travellers, tourists and those making short study-related visits, while the normal rules on permitted activities and length of stay still applied.
A December 2025 analysis attributed in the original account to the Istanbul Policy Center–Mercator interpreted electronic A.TR certificates as:
> a practical technical step that could help create momentum for broader customs-union and visa cooperation.
The main points were:
- Council Decision (EU) 2025/559 set the EU’s position for a decision in the EU–Türkiye Customs Cooperation Committee on electronically issued A.TR movement certificates.
- Electronic acceptance was not entirely new in 2025: recital 9 of Council Decision (EU) 2025/559 states that Member State and Turkish customs authorities began accepting electronically issued A.TR certificates on 8 July 2024. The Council decision of 18 March 2025 set the Union’s position on the committee framework, seeking continuity from that earlier date.
- Potential benefits included:
- faster handling of goods at borders;
- fewer paper errors and improved checks against fraud;
- lower administrative costs for Turkish and European businesses.
- Successful implementation could provide experience useful to further digitalisation in:
- customs procedures;
- border administration;
- potentially, separate future digital visa processes. An A.TR certificate concerns goods and does not itself create any visa entitlement.
- Türkiye remained:
- a major EU trading partner;
- a candidate for membership, with accession negotiations at a standstill.
- The EU also had interests in cooperation with Ankara on:
- migration and refugees;
- energy security;
- stability in the Black Sea region and the Balkans.
Visa facilitation and customs digitalisation could be viewed as politically more achievable than reopening accession negotiations. Their practical value lay in easier repeat travel for eligible applicants and more efficient trade, rather than a commitment to a wider political settlement.
- For Turkish citizens:
- a qualifying travel history could open access to longer-validity visas, rather than guarantee approval;
- this could make eligible short trips for study, tourism or business easier to organise.
- For investors and exporters:
- electronic A.TR certificates could reduce clearance paperwork and processing delays;
- businesses still needed to meet the applicable customs requirements.
- For Arab travellers using Türkiye as a route to Europe:
- the Turkish visa cascade did not automatically extend to other nationalities merely because they travelled through or lived in Türkiye;
- these developments nevertheless reflected Türkiye’s important role in Europe’s migration and trading relationships;
- that helps explain continued European interest in cooperation with Ankara on borders and refugees.
The overall picture in 2025 was incremental progress:
> no opening of the door to EU membership;
> more favourable Schengen arrangements for qualifying Turkish applicants;
> and a technical advance in customs cooperation that might support further political steps, without guaranteeing them.
Two developments attracted attention:
- more favourable rules for some Turkish applicants for Schengen visas;
- further work on electronic A.TR movement certificates, described in policy analysis as a technical bridge that might support wider cooperation on the customs union and visas.
What changed for Schengen visas?
The European Union adopted more favourable rules on 15 July 2025.- The new arrangements applied to Turkish citizens who lived and applied in Türkiye, had an established lawful travel history, and sought short-stay Schengen visas. Truck drivers were excluded from this particular regime.
- Eligible applicants could receive multiple-entry visas.
- The progression could lead to a one-year visa, followed by three-year and then five-year visas, subject to lawful use and sufficient passport validity. A one-year visa could follow two visas obtained and lawfully used within the previous three years.
- The practical aim was to make repeat travel easier:
- longer-validity visas can reduce the need for repeated applications;
- they can also reduce the repeated administrative burden on travellers who continue to meet the requirements. The new cascade rules did not themselves guarantee faster appointments, shorter processing times or exemption from supporting documents.
- This was a form of visa facilitation, rather than visa-free access:
- Turkish citizens covered by the ordinary short-stay visa requirement still needed a visa;
- the arrangements could help eligible business travellers, tourists and those making short study-related visits, while the normal rules on permitted activities and length of stay still applied.
Customs digitalisation: electronic A.TR certificates
A December 2025 analysis attributed in the original account to the Istanbul Policy Center–Mercator interpreted electronic A.TR certificates as:> a practical technical step that could help create momentum for broader customs-union and visa cooperation.
The main points were:
- Council Decision (EU) 2025/559 set the EU’s position for a decision in the EU–Türkiye Customs Cooperation Committee on electronically issued A.TR movement certificates.
- Electronic acceptance was not entirely new in 2025: recital 9 of Council Decision (EU) 2025/559 states that Member State and Turkish customs authorities began accepting electronically issued A.TR certificates on 8 July 2024. The Council decision of 18 March 2025 set the Union’s position on the committee framework, seeking continuity from that earlier date.
- Potential benefits included:
- faster handling of goods at borders;
- fewer paper errors and improved checks against fraud;
- lower administrative costs for Turkish and European businesses.
- Successful implementation could provide experience useful to further digitalisation in:
- customs procedures;
- border administration;
- potentially, separate future digital visa processes. An A.TR certificate concerns goods and does not itself create any visa entitlement.
The political context
- Türkiye remained:- a major EU trading partner;
- a candidate for membership, with accession negotiations at a standstill.
- The EU also had interests in cooperation with Ankara on:
- migration and refugees;
- energy security;
- stability in the Black Sea region and the Balkans.
Visa facilitation and customs digitalisation could be viewed as politically more achievable than reopening accession negotiations. Their practical value lay in easier repeat travel for eligible applicants and more efficient trade, rather than a commitment to a wider political settlement.
Implications for Turkish travellers and Arab visitors travelling through Türkiye
- For Turkish citizens:- a qualifying travel history could open access to longer-validity visas, rather than guarantee approval;
- this could make eligible short trips for study, tourism or business easier to organise.
- For investors and exporters:
- electronic A.TR certificates could reduce clearance paperwork and processing delays;
- businesses still needed to meet the applicable customs requirements.
- For Arab travellers using Türkiye as a route to Europe:
- the Turkish visa cascade did not automatically extend to other nationalities merely because they travelled through or lived in Türkiye;
- these developments nevertheless reflected Türkiye’s important role in Europe’s migration and trading relationships;
- that helps explain continued European interest in cooperation with Ankara on borders and refugees.
The overall picture in 2025 was incremental progress:
> no opening of the door to EU membership;
> more favourable Schengen arrangements for qualifying Turkish applicants;
> and a technical advance in customs cooperation that might support further political steps, without guaranteeing them.
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