Comments
The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that, according to the press release, "Turkish nationals do not have the right to enter the territory of an EU Member State without a visa in order to obtain services." Leyla Ecem Demirkan, a Turkish national whose application for a German visa had been denied, argued that the visa requirement violated the "standstill" clause of 1970 Additional Protocol (Protocol) to the 1963 European Economic Community-Turkey Association Agreement (Agreement). The aim of the Agreement was to, inter alia, "promote the continuous and balanced strengthening of trade and economic relations between the contracting parties," and the "standstill" clause in the Protocol "prohibit[ed] the contracting parties from introducing new restrictions on freedom to provide services with effect from the date of its entry into force." The case was appealed to the Oberverwaltungsgericht (Higher Administrative Court) Berlin-Brandenburg, which in turn asked the Court of Justice to clarify the scope of the "standstill" clause.
According to the press release, the Court ruled that the Protocol "does not preclude the introduction, after its entry into force, of a visa requirement where the purpose of the visit is to obtain services." The Court reasoned that the notion of "freedom to provide services" in the "standstill" clause "does not encompass passive freedom of provision of services, namely the freedom for Turkish nationals who are the recipients of services to visit a Member State in order to obtain services." In making this determination, the Court differentiated the purely economic purpose of the Agreement from that of EU Treaties on Member State Nationals.