Turkey has drafted changes to its personal data protection legislation as part of a renewed effort to secure visa-free travel for its citizens to the Schengen area, addressing one of six outstanding EU requirements, the BBC’s Turkish service reported Wednesday.
Officials from Turkish ministries and the European Commission are expected to hold technical talks soon to assess whether the proposed changes could meet EU standards.
The drafting work follows an initiative announced in August by Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz to coordinate efforts to fulfill the remaining conditions.
The talks would mark an early step in that initiative. The EU has not yet accepted the proposed changes as sufficient to meet the data protection requirement.
The European Commission has repeatedly said Turkey’s legislation falls short of European standards, including on privacy safeguards, enforcement and the protection of personal data handled by law enforcement agencies. Brussels has also identified shortcomings in the framework governing Turkey’s Personal Data Protection Authority.
Turkey previously amended its data protection law in 2024, including provisions governing sensitive personal data and transfers abroad, but the visa liberalization benchmark remains outstanding.
The issue also affects Turkey’s cooperation with Europol, the EU’s law enforcement agency. An agreement allowing the exchange of personal data has not been concluded, partly because Turkey’s legislation does not meet EU requirements.
Without that agreement, the exchange of information about terrorism suspects and other security threats remains limited, EU officials told the BBC.
Better data protection could also facilitate police and judicial cooperation on counterterrorism. Turkey would still need to revise its counterterrorism legislation to fulfill that separate visa liberalization requirement.
EU cautiously welcomes renewed efforts
An EU official speaking to the BBC welcomed Ankara’s initiative after years of limited progress.
“We have long been sending the message that we are ready to work with Turkey to help it meet the criteria. We welcome the fact that steps are beginning to be taken after a long period of inactivity,” the official said.
Another EU official said the technical talks would examine Turkey’s completed and planned work and assess whether the proposed changes could meet EU expectations. Further discussions are expected.
Turkey must fulfill all outstanding benchmarks before visa liberalization can proceed.
The EU and Turkey launched their Visa Liberalization Dialogue in December 2013 with a roadmap containing 72 benchmarks. Turkey fulfilled 65 within the first three years and another in 2018, leaving six unresolved.
They concern counterterrorism legislation, data protection, an agreement with Europol, implementation of anticorruption recommendations from the Council of Europe’s Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), judicial cooperation with all EU member states and full implementation of the EU-Turkey Readmission Agreement. The latter governs the return of people who entered the EU irregularly through Turkey.
The prolonged deadlock has coincided with growing frustration over Schengen visa applications in Turkey. Applicants have faced lengthy appointment waits, higher refusal rates than before the pandemic and costly application requirements. Automated bots have reportedly captured appointment slots for resale at prices reaching hundreds of euros.
European Commission figures released in May show that Schengen consulates in Turkey received 1,268,376 applications in 2025 and rejected 183,196 of them. The reported refusal rate was 14.6 percent, compared with 9.7 percent in 2019. These figures cover applications lodged in Turkey rather than applications exclusively filed by Turkish citizens.
The EU introduced more favorable rules in July 2025 allowing eligible Turkish applicants with positive travel records to obtain longer-term, multiple-entry visas more easily.
Those measures eased access to visas for frequent travelers but did not remove the visa requirement.
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