EU members split over travel ban against Russians | Russia-Ukraine war News

Members of the European Union are divided over a proposed ban on vacationer visas for Russians looking for to enter the 27-nation bloc with France and Germany warning towards such a measure.

The Czech Republic, which holds the rotating EU presidency, needs to droop a 2007 deal that eased visa purposes for Russian vacationers and a few European Union members have urged an outright visa ban.

“There isn’t any place for tourism,” mentioned Czech Overseas Minister Jan Lipavsky, who’s internet hosting an off-the-cuff two-day assembly of the bloc’s overseas ministers in Prague.

However some nations together with EU powerhouses Germany and France in addition to Hungary, Luxembourg and Austria have raised objections.

“We warning towards far-reaching restrictions on our visa coverage, with a view to stop feeding the Russian narrative and set off unintended rallying-around the flag results and/or estranging future generations,” France and Germany mentioned in a joint memo as reported by the Reuters information company on Tuesday prematurely of the assembly.

Japanese and Nordic nations have strongly backed such a ban, saying that journey to the EU is a privilege, not a proper, and that permitting Russians to celebration on European seashores at a time when their nation has invaded Ukraine is unacceptable.

The Kremlin slammed the proposed ban as “irrational”, whereas Paris and Berlin argued that, six months into the warfare, the EU ought to keep away from penalising bizarre Russians who may oppose their authorities’s actions and harbour pro-Western sympathies.

One EU diplomat mentioned divisions on the difficulty meant an settlement on the two-day assembly of ministers in Prague was unlikely. Member-state high diplomats would want to succeed in a unanimous settlement to implement a ban, which might be the bloc’s newest motion meant to punish Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Marie Dumoulin, director of the Wider Europe Program on the European Council on Overseas Relations (ECFR) mentioned that the adverse impact of a blanket visa ban would outdo the ethical benefits of such a measure.

“Assuming {that a} visa ban for Russian vacationers would improve the general public’s strain on Russian authorities and produce a few coverage change is wishful pondering,” Dumoulin mentioned, noting that lower than a 3rd of Russians can journey overseas and after they do, the EU just isn’t their vacation spot.

“A blanket visa ban would stigmatise Russians and play into the arms of the Russian propaganda, which depicts the West as basically pushed by its Russophobia,” she added.

On Sunday, the top of EU overseas coverage, Joseph Borell additionally warned against the move: “I don’t assume that to chop the connection with the Russian civilian inhabitants will assist and I don’t assume that this concept could have the required unanimity,” he mentioned talking to  Austria’s ORF TV.

As a brief compromise, ministers may agree in precept on suspending a visa facilitation settlement, which might imply Russians dealing with an extended process and having to pay 80 euros as an alternative of 35 for his or her EU visa, the diplomat mentioned.

However that will effectively not be sufficient for pro-ban nations, particularly these bordering Russia, a few of which have already individually stopped issuing visas.

“I hope that we will agree on a typical European resolution that may enable to considerably restrict the movement of vacationers from Russia to Europe,” Lithuanian Overseas Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis mentioned in an announcement.

“If all 27 EU nations fail to succeed in an settlement, a regional resolution for the nations most affected by the movement of Russian vacationers could also be sought sooner or later.”

Finland, which has an extended land border with Russia and has mentioned it doesn’t wish to turn into a hub for Russian vacationers coming into the EU, has sharply lower the variety of visas it grants them.

Earlier this month, Estonia closed its border to greater than 50,000 Russians with beforehand issued visas, the primary EU nation to take action.

“It is vitally provocative to me that you just see Russian males on European seashores in southern Europe and on the similar time Ukrainian males between 18 and 60 years can not even go away their nation, however must struggle for his or her freedom,” Denmark’s Overseas Minister Jeppe Kofod mentioned final week.

Describing the requires a visa ban for instance of the West’s “anti-Russian agenda”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned, “Step-by-step, sadly, each Brussels and particular person European capitals are demonstrating an absolute lack of motive.”

And any visa ban would “not go unanswered”, he added.