Commission approves its proposal relating to visa regime

Brussels, 26/01/2000 (Agence Europe) - At the initiative of Mr. Vitorino, on Wednesday the Commission adopted (as EUROPE announced: see yesterday's bulletin, p.9) a Draft Regulation aimed at establishing a Community list of third countries whose nationals are subjected to the obligation of being in possession of a visa to cross the external border and, on the contrary, a list of countries who are not subjected to that obligation. This initiative stems from the Amsterdam Treaty that provided a Community dimension to visa policy (Heading IV "Visas, Asylum, Immigration and other policies linked to the free movement of persons") and, more directly, the extraordinary European Council of Tampere which confirmed the will of the Fifteen to build an area of freedom, security and justice. This Commission initiative is the first taken in this context, in anticipation of the "scoreboard" that the Commission is currently preparing (Mr Vitorino is on a round of the capitals to that effect) and which will incorporate this aspect.

In concrete terms, the draft regulation is meant to replace provisions established by Regulation EC 574/99 in the framework of the Schengen Agreement. Mindful of the importance of proceeding gradually when placing such a sensitive matter under the Community pillar (to prevent Member States from hiding behind the so-called unrealistic nature of the Commission's proposal), Mr Vitorino's services have respected the following provisions:

• Third countries whose nationals must secure a visa. The Community regulation includes 101 and the Schengen acquis 133. The Commission's proposal seeks an alignment with Schengen, listing 134 countries, but with the following changes: a) Bulgaria and Romania are deleted from the list, further to their entry into the club of countries actively negotiating EU accession (Turkey, recognised as a candidate at the Helsinki Summit, remains on the list, as it does not meet the conditions for opening accession negotiations); b) Colombia, the Palestinian Authority and West Timor are added to the list (a Community act should enable Spain to accept Colombia's inclusion more readily than the intergovernmental basis used in Schengen);
• Third countries whose nationals do not need visas. The draft regulation mentions 48 countries, whereas the EU had no equivalent list previously. Compared to the Schengen acquis, the number rises from 44 to 48 third countries, with the addition of Bulgaria, Romania, Hong Kong and Macao.