EU foreign ministers, meeting informally in Prague on Wednesday 31 August, reached a “political agreement” on the “full suspension of the short-stay visa facilitation agreement” for Russian citizens, announced Josep Borrell, the EU’s High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. This political agreement will be followed by a formal proposal from the European Commission.
In addition, the ministers decided, while suspending the 2007 agreement entirely, to treat certain groups of Russian travellers - including those who oppose Vladimir Putin’s war - differently, with visa applications examined on an individual basis and people being allowed to enter the EU if they have good reason to do so.
On the subject of the millions of currently valid visas held by Russian citizens - around 12 million, according to figures given by Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky - it was also agreed that the Commission will draw up guidelines to find a solution as some countries want to be able to return to this ‘stock’ of visas issued.
The Ministers’ discussion also led to an agreement on the possibility for certain Member States - in this case Finland, Poland and the Baltic States - to drastically reduce the entry of Russian citizens into their territory by drastically reducing the issue of visas. The same countries will be able to carry out targeted checks at the external borders on Russian short-stay visa holders, within the framework provided by the Schengen Borders Code.
Finally, it was also decided on Wednesday that Russian passports issued to residents of the occupied Ukrainian territories “will not be recognised” in the EU, added Josep Borrell.
The High Representative said that with a substantial increase in Russian tourists to eastern EU countries since mid-July, “there is a security risk”. He also explained that the war in Ukraine is changing the situation, as Russian citizens can no longer come to the EU for simple tourism as before. “The Member States did not believe that it could be ‘business as usual’,” he added.
In concrete terms, the full suspension of the 2007 agreement will make it more difficult for all Russian citizens to obtain Schengen visas. This includes researchers, artists or students, who under the 2007 agreement had to pay only €35 to apply for a visa and could obtain the document in a shorter time.
While Paris and Berlin seemed to want to exclude certain categories of people from a possible tightening of the visa policy, the full suspension of the 2007 agreement covers - on paper - all ordinary Russian citizens.
“It will take longer, and be more complicated to obtain visas, which will substantially reduce the number of visas issued” to enter the Schengen Area, Josep Borrell explained. Tuesday’s decision could therefore be seen as a semi-ban on Russian tourists in the EU and a victory for the Baltic countries, Finland and Poland. The formal decision will require a qualified majority.
“What made an agreement possible was the understanding of how many people have visas,” said one source, with some suggesting as many as 20 million visas exist for Russian citizens.
The Baltic States, Finland and Poland could meet at the end of the week to implement more drastic measures to reduce the issuance of visas at their level and in a coordinated manner.
They could also look at how to identify people who can come to the EU, a practice already in place to let Belarusian nationals into the Schengen Area could serve as an example.
According to another source, the debate between the ministers was constructive and “lively”, while Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto described it as very “confusing”, according to several Hungarian media reports.
Link to the 2007 agreement: https://aeur.eu/f/2vv (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic with Camille-Cerise Gessant)