Commissioner for Internal Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner presented the new comprehensive visa strategy to European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties on Tuesday 24 February. Recalling the guidelines recently adopted by the Commission (see EUROPE 13797/10), he advocated using this tool to encourage third countries to cooperate on readmitting irregular migrants, while promising the complete digitalisation of legal mobility procedures by 2028.
While the decompartmentalisation of visa policy was widely welcomed, MEPs raised several points of concern. Lena Düpont (EPP, German) stressed the importance of ensuring that these security measures did not harm the EU’s economic and commercial interests. Fabrice Leggeri (PfE, French) called for concrete enforcement and monitoring tools to ensure that recalcitrant third countries issue consular passes to expelled migrants.
On the other hand, Matjaž Nemec (S&D, Slovenian) regretted that the strategy was “mainly focused on irregular migration”, at the risk of neglecting foreign policy and tarnishing the EU’s image in the long term. Tineke Strik (Greens/EFA, Dutch) was also concerned about the “punitive” use of visas. Both expressed surprise that the Commission was not considering suspending the visa-free agreement with Israel for human rights violations (see EUROPE 13813/11). The Commissioner rejected this option, refusing to “single out one [visa-free partner] for political reasons”.
Mr Brunner concluded by noting that obtaining European visas was “a privilege [with] responsibilities”, promising to work on the technical issues raised in the coming months. (Original version in French by Justine Manaud)