Brussels, 27/11/2012 (Agence Europe) - According to a report by the AFP on Tuesday 27 November, Russia has put pressure on the EU to push forward negotiations on the visa waiver regime that Moscow has been demanding for a long time. On Tuesday, a Russian diplomatic official explained that Russia had given the EU precisely one year to make progress in the negotiations on setting up a visa waiver regime and that from this December the country will already begin imposing visa requirements on European airline flight crews. The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, will also make this subject one of his priorities at the next EU/Russia summit planned for 21 December in Brussels.
On Tuesday morning, the spokesperson for the services of the Commission for Home Affairs, Cecilia Malmström, indicated that the Commission “regrets” the announcement made by Russia and the fact that this decision to reintroduce these requirements for crews from certain member states went, “against the spirit in which the visa facilitation agreement (obtained in 2007) is currently being negotiated” and is regressing due to an aspect that had already been the subject of agreement. According to the Russian press, this announcement made by Moscow only affects a few member states such as Belgium, Hungary, Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg, Portugal, Slovakia, Finland, Estonia and the Czech Republic. Requirements on these countries will be imposed as from 1 December.
The Commission explained that it hoped to see the problem resolved “constructively” rather than see the reintroduction of similar measures on its side. It would like discussions to continue on the basis that had already been set out in the beginning and which depends on full visa reciprocity for Russian and European flight crews.
On Tuesday, however, the Russian ambassador, Anvar Azimov, quoted by the Ria Novosti agency, justified his country's decision by saying that, “for us, it is now a question of principle. We will not give in any longer. We want a dialogue of equals” with the EU. A phased-in transition plan for free movement was adopted at the last EU/Russia summit in December 2011 in Brussels but this has been stalling due to human rights and the rule of law conditions introduced in the plan. The Russians consider that all technical requirements needed to finalise this roadmap have in fact been met, explained Azimov, and that removing visa requirements only needed a “political decision” to be taken by the EU. (SP/transl.fl)