On Sunday 26 March, European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos met with Bulgaria's Minister of the Interior Plamen Uzunov, Romania's Minister of the Interio, Carmen-Daniela Dan, Croatia's Minister of Interior Vlaho Orepic, Poland's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Jan Dziedziczak and the Cypriot Deputy Permanent Representative to the European Union, Olympia Neocleous, to discuss progress towards achieving full visa reciprocity with the USA.
"We discussed steps that could be taken on the EU side to fulfil the criteria of the US Visa Waiver Program. We will continue to engage closely with the United States, both at political and technical level, for a solution which is to the mutual benefit of European and American citizens, as well as our close strategic relations more widely", Avramoplouos stated.
Although Canada has promised the EU that it will remove the visa requirements on Bulgarian and Romanian citizens on 1 December 2017, the USA is continuing to apply restrictions on citizens from Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland and Romania. These citizens are still unable to enter US territory without a visa. The European Parliament has demanded that the Commission reintroduce visa requirements for US citizens, in retaliation, but it is still refusing to do so due to the economic repercussions this could have on the EU. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)