BRUSSELS – The European Commission is proposing a tightening of visa suspension rules to combat the perceived misuse of visa-free travel within Europe.
The revised regulations would grant the EU more liberty to temporarily suspend visa-free arrangements, especially if third countries’ policies are thought to lead to a surge in migrant arrivals in the EU.
In this regard, Vice-President European Commission Margaritis Schinas acknowledged the significant advantages of the EU’s visa-free travel system but emphasized the need to safeguard against potential misuse.
As far as the proposed changes are concerned, they include:
- Expanding the grounds to suspend visa-free regimes, such as in case of insufficient alignment with the EU’s visa policy, hybrid threats and the operation of investor citizenship schemes.
- Increasing the duration of the current procedure to allow more time for remedial actions. A new urgency procedure is introduced to react faster in case of need, such as high increase in arrivals or security threats.
- Strengthening the Commission’s monitoring and reporting obligations to any visa-free countries where challenges are identified.
The EU is concerned that some of the sixty countries with visa-free access might be utilized as transit points for irregular migrants entering the bloc which is becoming a reason for the proposals seeking tightening of visa rules.
Last year, there were around 150,000 asylum applications from citizens of visa-free countries, a situation viewed as improper by EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson.
The comments about tightening the visa regime come as an individual named Abdelsalem L. who was residing in Belgium irregularly and who had been ordered to return to his country of origin, murdered two Swedish nationals in an act of terrorism in Brussels.
“We need to step up our efforts to be able to send people back to their country of origin,” Johansson said and added that there will be no migration and asylum policy in the European Union without a meaningful returns culture.
“Europe will always continue to be a place of asylum for those who flee war, persecution and discrimination. But those who have no reason to be under the protection of the European Union cannot stay with us,” he added.
As far as the next step is concerned, the Commission’s proposal to revise the Visa Suspension Mechanism will now be negotiated by the European Parliament and the Council.
It bears mentioning that the European Union currently maintains visa-free agreements with 60 non-EU nations, granting their citizens short stays of up to 90 days within a 180-day period in the Schengen area.
In 2013, the Visa Suspension Mechanism was established to allow for the temporary suspension of visa exemptions in response to sudden and significant increases in irregular migration. This mechanism underwent revisions in 2017, streamlining the process for Member States to report circumstances that might warrant suspension.
Moreover, it also granted the Commission the authority to initiate the suspension mechanism independently. Additionally, the Commission can activate this mechanism if specific benchmarks for visa liberalization are no longer met by countries engaged in such dialogues.
