Free Movement of Persons between Turkey and the EU: To Move or not to Move? The Response of the Judiciary

The article provides an overview of the recent ECJ case law concerning free movement of persons under the EEC-Turkey Association Agreement (Ankara Agreement) in the following four areas: admission to a Member State; the right to residence in a Member State; the right to equal treatment; and expulsion from the territory of a Member State. To place the legal regime created by the Ankara Acquis (comprising the Ankara Agreement, its Additional Protocol, Association Council Decisions and the ECJ case law) in the wider legal context of Community law, rights enjoyed by Turkish nationals in these areas are compared to the rights enjoyed by other third-country nationals as well as Union citizens, especially in relation to free movement of workers, conditions of work, education, social security and protection against expulsion. Tum and Dari and Soysal, the most recent and interesting cases generated around the “standstill clause” of the Additional Protocol, are analysed in detail in the first part of the article. The wider implications of these judgments on the visa policies of various Member States, as well as the potential of future developments in the area of freedom of establishment and freedom to provide services under the Ankara Agreement are also examined.