Brussels, 17/03/2016 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 16 March, MEPs on the European Parliament's civil liberties committee (LIBE) adopted a report on the new rules for visa request procedures for entering the EU. In the report, the MEPs have added the possibility for EU consulates and embassies to issue humanitarian visas to people lodging an asylum application (see EUROPE 11513).
This humanitarian visa proposal is part of a wider updating of the EU's visa code. The report was adopted by 46 to 4 with 7 abstentions. The way the rapporteur, Juan Fernando López Aguilar (S&D, Spain), sees it, these humanitarian visas would allow their holder to enter the country issuing the visa safely to request asylum there.
The member states should accept requests for visas from the country in which the requester is located for humanitarian reasons, reasons of national interest or to meet international obligations, explains the committee. Humanitarian visas would have limited territorial validity because the only object of the trip would be to lodge a request for international protection.
The adopted proposal facilitates the procedures for visa applications without altering the criteria for assessing the requests. The changes foresee that some applications would not have to submit their application in person and that the processing times should be shorter and for interviews to be possible remotely.
The LIBE committee will begin talks with the Council with a view to reaching an agreement on the legislation in first reading. The negotiating mandate was adopted by 53 to 3, with 1 abstention. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)