The Member States informed the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU of their impressions of the recent Commission report, published in August (see EUROPE 12775/8), in which the Commission considers that the Western Balkan and Eastern Partnership countries continue to meet the criteria for visa liberalisation for their citizens.
While they broadly agree with the Commission’s conclusions, some member countries have reservations and ask to monitor certain trends, according to a document seen by EUROPE. Germany, in particular, raises difficulties with Moldova and Georgia and believes that, should these problems persist, the Commission should consider discussing with these countries the possibility of activating the suspension of liberalisation.
Several other countries such as Belgium and the Czech Republic report, like Berlin, new or continuing difficulties, notably with Moldova, Ukraine and Georgia, and report high rates of unfounded asylum claims (or illegal residence) made through entry into the EU via the visa-free regime. For the Czech Republic, nationals of these countries are thus the first categories of asylum seekers.
Germany notes that the number of asylum applications lodged by Georgians rose again in August 2021 (+51% between June-August 2019 and June-August 2021) and by 429% for Moldovans between June-August 2019 and the same period in 2021, with Berlin first wanting to see whether this trend is sustainable.
Italy raises a similar concern with Moldova and also believes that the suspension of the visa-free regime could be an avenue to explore.
France believes that the situation has improved with Georgia and Albania, countries that had posed difficulties for the country in the past, but sees potential problems with Serbia.
In 2019, the Netherlands asked the Commission to activate the visa suspension mechanism against Albania (see EUROPE 12267/10), but a few months later the Commission considered that the country still met the criteria for the liberalisation regime (see EUROPE 12525/22).
Link to the Presidency document: https://bit.ly/3D1z0Hr (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)