Brussels, 22/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - The nationals of Peru, Colombia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), like those of 16 countries of the Caribbean and Pacific, will be able to travel in the Schengen area without a visa. MEPs from the European Parliament's civil liberties committee, who were meeting in Strasbourg on Monday 21 October, approved legislation on this by adopting the report by Mariya Gabriel (EPP, Bulgaria). Gabriel's report was on the proposal amending the list of third countries whose nationals are obliged to have a visa to cross the external borders of the EU member states and the list of those countries whose nationals are exempt from this obligation.
At the beginning, it was just a case of putting around 15 countries on the so-called positive list, of which the EU is fairly certain that the nationals will not abuse their permission to stay in the EU, but lobbying worked in favour of Peru, Colombia and the UAE. South Sudan, which declared its independence in 2011, is now included on the negative list, and its nationals will need a visa. Citizens from the following countries will now be exempt from a visa: Dominica, Grenada, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Samoa, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu, as well as Timor Leste. All British nationals living outside the UK will also be exempt from visas. (SP/transl.fl)