The United States is now the only third country on the list of countries exempted from the visa obligation in the European Union that does not grant a visa dispensation to citizens of all EU member states.
Despite the discussions that took place in 2017, the citizens of five member states (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland and Romania) are still required to obtain a visa to travel to the United States. These negotiations will continue in 2018, notably at the end of February at a meeting between senior European and American officials to prepare for a transatlantic ministerial meeting scheduled for May.
The Commission is still not considering temporarily suspending the visa exemption for US citizens, despite the inequality of treatment for European citizens, stating in a progress report presented in late December that such a measure would be counter-productive.
According to the European institution, the visa reciprocity mechanism is starting to pay off. Since 1 December, full reciprocity has been established with Canada, after the country lifted the visa obligation for all Bulgarian and Romanian nationals (see EUROPE 11916). Canada’s decision is the result of talks held alongside those on the CETA free-trade agreement. (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)