The European Parliament rapporteur on the new rules for short-stay visas in the EU, Juan Fernando López Aguilar (S&D, Spain), believes it is possible to reach a trilogue agreement with the Council on 28 January, he told his colleagues in the Committee on Civil Liberties on Thursday 10 January, with a next trilogue due to take place on 17 January in Strasbourg.
The parliamentarian believes that the matter could be completed before the European elections with a possible agreement on 6 February in the Permanent Representatives Committee and a vote in the Committee on Civil Liberties between 17 and 19 February, followed by a confirmation vote in plenary session in March.
These new rules, validated by the LIBE Committee on 11 December (see EUROPE 12158), establish in particular the price of visas and the procedures for granting them. The issues to be resolved in the trilogue relate to border visa procedures - which the Parliament would like to restore - and also to the negative conditionality sought by the Council, which would make it more difficult to grant visas to countries that do not cooperate sufficiently on unauthorised migration.
Some groups in Parliament do not want to directly penalise the citizens of the countries in question. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)