The European Commission should respect European law by temporarily re-introducing visa requirements for US citizens, so as to encourage Washington to grant visa-free access to nationals from all EU countries, the majority of MEPs stated in Strasbourg on Wednesday 14 December at a debate on the question of visa reciprocity.
This is what the EPP Group in particular pressed home. Their spokesperson on this issue, Agustin Diaz de Mera (Spain), called on the European Commission to apply the law strictly. The 2001 regulation on visas indeed gave the Commission a deadline of 12 April 2016 for re-imposing visas for citizens from third countries that do not respect visa reciprocity. However, the Commission considered that on this date a suspension of the visa-waiver regime – especially as regards the USA, which applies restrictions to citizens from Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Croatia – would be counter-productive and damaging to the interests of the EU (see EUROPE 11530).
On Wednesday, European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos said that no progress had been recorded with the USA, unlike with Canada which will lift its visa requirements for Bulgarian and Romanian nationals at the end of 2017.
However, Avramopoulos reiterated the economic cost for the EU, especially in terms of jobs in the tourism sector. He promised to resume the discussions with the Trump administration – which is nevertheless a matter of concern for Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar (S&D, Spain), who believes that the situation with Donald Trump will certainly not improve. The law must be enforced. In the view of the chair of the European Parliament's civil liberties committee, Claude Moraes (S&D, UK), this is also "a matter of principle". (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)