Brussels, 05/11/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Friday evening 5 November, the European Commission adopted its sixth report on retention of the visa requirement by certain third countries in breach of the principle of reciprocity. The new report shows “further progress” towards ensuring visa-free travel abroad for all EU citizens, said Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström. However, “the dialogue must continue in order to achieve full reciprocity with the third countries concerned (Canada and the US) as soon as possible”, she added. The European Union will sign very soon two visa waiver agreements with Brazil: one for ordinary passport holders, the other for holders of diplomatic, service or official passports. Ratification of these agreements will mean that Cypriot, Estonian, Latvian and Maltese citizens will no longer need visas to travel to Brazil. Brunei Darussalam grants all EU citizens a visa waiver, but it is valid only for 30 days, renewable twice for 30 days. The Commission has asked the authorities of Brunei Darussalam to grant EU citizens a 90-days visa waiver. Since the reintroduction of the visa requirement by Canada for Czech citizens in July 2009, a raft of measures has been established in order to allow Canada to lift the visa requirement again before the new Canadian asylum legislation is implemented. The results are expected for the start of 2011. The other remaining cases of non-reciprocity relate to the United States, which is maintaining the visa requirement for citizens of Bulgaria, Cyprus, Romania and Poland, and Canada, which requires visas for Bulgarian and Romanian citizens. The U.S and Canada consider that the member states concerned do not yet meet all criteria for visa exemption set in their legislation (e.g. they do not issue biometric passports or meet thresholds set for visa refusal and/or overstay rates). (B.C./transl.rt)