On Tuesday 30 May, the European Commission adopted a communication on the control of EU visa waiver regimes in which it examines the operation of the 61 visa waiver regimes that the EU grants to third countries.
It identifies the main challenges in the areas of irregular migration and security, with the visa policy pursued by certain third countries having come under fire from Member States in 2022 on the grounds that they were increasing the number of migrants arriving in the EU.
This communication, announced in March by the President of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, is intended to prepare a legislative proposal to modify the visa suspension mechanism.
“Visa-free travel brings considerable economic, social and cultural benefits to EU Member States and third countries. At the same time, recent years have shown that visa-free travel can pose significant problems in terms of migration and security”, explains the Commission.
The purpose of the communication is to put questions to the Council of the EU, and also to the European Parliament, on new grounds for suspending visa-free regimes in order to address new risks, changing the thresholds for triggering the suspension mechanism, and strengthening monitoring provisions.
The Communication also highlights the role of investor citizenship regimes.
Link to the communication: https://aeur.eu/f/74a (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)