EU set to suspend visa travel agreement with Russia

EU international ministers are this week set to again a suspension of the bloc’s visa facilitation settlement with Moscow in an effort to curb the variety of journey permits issued after some jap member states threatened to unilaterally shut their borders to Russian vacationers.

Some international locations have demanded collective motion to cease odd Russians from travelling to the EU on vacationer visas, within the latest challenge for the bloc because it tries to punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine whereas sustaining unity amongst its 27 members.

Nations together with the Czech Republic and Poland stopped issuing visas to Russian vacationers shortly after president Vladimir Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February. They’ve since demanded that Brussels enact an entire ban, echoing a plea from Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

However others have continued to grant the journey paperwork, permitting Russians with visas to journey anyplace within the the Schengen free-movement space.

As a primary step, ministers plan to present political assist to suspending the EU-Russia visa facilitation settlement at a two-day assembly in Prague that begins on Tuesday, three officers concerned within the talks informed the Monetary Instances.

“It’s inappropriate for Russian vacationers to walk in our cities, on our marinas,” mentioned a senior EU official concerned within the talks. “We have now to ship a sign to the Russian inhabitants that this conflict isn’t OK, it’s not acceptable.”

Elements of the 2007 deal referring to free motion of presidency officers and businessmen have been suspended in late February. A wider suspension would take away preferential therapy for Russians when making use of for all EU visas, requiring extra paperwork, making them costlier and considerably rising ready occasions.

“We’re in an distinctive scenario and it requires distinctive steps. We need to transcend suspending the visa facilitation,” mentioned the senior EU official, including that deeper modifications might be launched by the tip of the yr.

Nonetheless, there isn’t any consensus on further measures that Brussels may take that will both scale back the variety of EU visas to be issued to Russians or halt their issuance solely, or on proposals equivalent to extending any ban to residents of Belarus, which has supported Putin’s invasion.

Some international locations, together with Germany, have cautioned in opposition to an outright ban. Josep Borrell, the EU’s chief diplomat who will chair the Prague talks, has mentioned he opposes a ban on all Russian visas, saying the bloc wanted to “be extra selective”.

Finland, Poland and the Baltic international locations, which border Russia, have due to this fact steered they’re ready to cease permitting Russians with vacationer visas to enter their territories, citing the Schengen settlement’s nationwide safety exceptions.

With air journey between the EU and Russia suspended, many Russian vacationers use these international locations as a transit path to different EU locations. Kaja Kallas, prime minister of Estonia, mentioned final week that 30 per cent of Russians travelling to the EU accomplish that through the Baltic state.

“I do expect to find a joint European answer on easy methods to considerably restrict the flows of Russian vacationers to Europe,” mentioned Lithuania’s international minister Gabrielius Landsbergis, describing a deal among the many 27 as “essentially the most sustainable and legally appropriate one”.

However, he added: “If a joint answer isn’t discovered, we don’t rule out a regional settlement among the many international locations most affected by the large flows of Russian vacationers abusing European hospitality.”

Nations in favour of a full ban on Russians visiting the EU for tourism have mentioned that they are not looking for a full border closure, and that exceptions should be retained for humanitarian causes, asylum claims and to permit dissidents of the Putin regime to flee.

EU defence ministers, who will meet in Prague on Monday, may also focus on choices for a possible coaching mission for Ukrainian troopers run by Brussels.

The potential coaching centres, which observe an analogous initiative by the UK this summer season, could be primarily based in EU international locations near Ukraine, Borrell mentioned final week.