Visa liberalization for Turkey is a key component of the EU-Turkey statement of March 18 which stated that the fulfillment of the visa liberalization roadmap will be accelerated with a view to lifting the visa requirements for Turkish citizens at the latest by the end of June 2016, provided that all benchmarks have been met.
Kosovo citizens with biometric passports will be able to spend without a visa up to 90 days in any 180-day period in the Schengen zone for business, tourist or family purposes.
"There is no free ride here", he told reporters, stressing that Ankara must meet standards required of other states exempt from visas.
The European Parliament and EU member states must still approve the visa waiver after it clears the commission.
Turkey's EU Affairs Minister Volkan Bozkir said Turkish officials would meet with European parliamentarians led by the chamber's president, Martin Schulz, in coming weeks to drum up support for a yes vote. However, Ireland, the United Kingdom, and countries in the Schengen area, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, are not included in the deal.
Brussels also overhauled its outdated asylum system with a mechanism for relocating refugees, with states that decline to take their quota facing a fine of 250,000 euros ($290,000) for each person refused.
The 28-nation European Union depends on Ankara's cooperation to maintain a March pact that has helped stem the flow of refugees and migrants arriving from Turkey, from which more than a million people reached Greece and Italy past year.
Under present European Union laws, people seeking refuge in Europe must apply for asylum in the country they first arrive in, with Greece and Italy being the main destination for people-traffickers' overloaded boats.
Timmermans said the new mechanism would be activated only in times of crisis, and countries that show they temporarily can not take any asylum seekers under the mechanism should show "financial solidarity", he added.
Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski says he is "wondering if it is a serious proposal", while Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto says it's "simply blackmailing" and "unacceptable".
Those countries tightened border controls to cope with the arrivals but Germany, which was hardest hit by asylum-seeker numbers, can only legally keep controls in place until May 13. In April, more than 12,000 migrants crossed the Mediterranean - a 59 percent decrease from past year.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and PM Ahmet Davutoglu had warned that the EU-Turkey migrant deal could be annulled if the visa liberalisation did not go through on time.
In exchange, the European Union offered Turkey 6 billion euros ($6.9 billion) in aid to cope with the refugee crisis within its borders, plus a series of political concessions including visa liberalization in the short term and potential European Union membership in the long run.
Source: Over 60pct of Germans Oppose Visa-Free Regime Between EU and Turkey
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