The European Parliament’s action for failure to act filed in March 2021 against the European Commission (see EUROPE 12669/28) - MEPs criticised the Commission for not temporarily suspending the visa waiver for US citizens due to a lack of reciprocity in US visa policy towards Bulgarian, Croatian, Cypriot and Romanian nationals - is inadmissible, the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union, Jean Richard de la Tour, ruled in his Opinion on Thursday 15 December (Case C-137/21).
In May 2017 and December 2020, the Commission had indicated in a Communication that it considered it counterproductive to adopt a delegated act on the basis of Regulation 2018/1806 to temporarily suspend the short-stay visa exemption with the US. As proof, at the end of 2021 Croatia had been included in the list of countries whose nationals benefit from a visa exemption (see EUROPE 12800/25).
According to the Advocate General, the Commission was not required to adopt a delegated act. The fact that the Commission advocates, via a Communication, the use of diplomatic channels instead of the adoption of a delegated act is tantamount to taking a position that renders Parliament’s appeal inadmissible, he said.
See the Opinion: https://aeur.eu/f/4pm (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)