EU member states’ ambassadors on COREPER agreed on Wednesday 5 October to negotiate with the European Parliament a visa-free travel scheme for Georgia, thus agreeing to the visa-free travel proposal issued by the European Commission in March 2016.
By agreeing in principle in this manner, the Council will now agree with the European Parliament on the final conditions to allow Georgians to benefit from the scheme, including the introduction of a mechanism for suspending visa-free travel. The vast majority of member states want the entry into force of the visa-free travel to coincide with the entry into force of the suspension mechanism, which the member states would be able to activate in the event of abuse or problems with people from a country which enjoys visa-free travel.
The suspension mechanism has not yet been agreed upon by the European Parliament and Council and talks are dragging on (see EUROPE 11633). Interinstitutional talks may be held in Strasbourg on Thursday 6 October to try to find a way round the situation.
The Slovak Presidency of the Council of the EU wants Georgians to be granted visa-free travel as soon as possible and calls on the European Parliament to provide its support to the process. The two European institutions disagree on a number of procedures to be followed to activate the suspension mechanism.
After Georgia, the member states will need to deal with visa-free travel for Ukraine and Kosovo, which the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee (LIBE) has agreed to grant, but with extra conditions for Kosovo.
There is also the question of visa-free travel promised to Turkey. The country has not yet met the 72 criteria, including important conditions on alignment of counter-terrorism laws. The question is still not on LIBE’s agenda, explained Tanja Fajon (S&D, Slovenia) to a few reporters in Strasbourg on Tuesday evening. She added that LIBE has not yet started working on the visa-free travel scheme for Turkey. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)