Strasbourg, 11/02/2002 (Agence Europe) - When it adopted the report last week (along with all the tabled amendments) by the German Social Democrat Margot Kessler, on which the EP is simply being consulted, concerning the draft directive on the criteria governing the freedom of movement of non-EU nationals in the Member States for a maximum of three months, introducing a specific travel authorisation and setting the entry conditions for visits of no more than six months, the European Parliament argued that this should take the form of a regulation rather than a directive since a directive would lead to delays in applying the legislation given the time it would take to transpose it into national law. Commissioner Antonio Vitorino said that he would agree to the legislation taking the form of a regulation.
Moreover, the EP believes that non-EU nationals to whom visa restrictions do not apply are free to travel throughout all Member States for a maximum of three months, while non-EU nationals with residence permits should not be disadvantaged in comparison with people who get one visa after another when it comes to freedom of movement. Non-EU nationals who have long-term residence permits should be free to travel in Member States before they have requested residence permits since otherwise the situation would lead to a retrograde step with regard to current legislation (amendment to Article 18 of the convention applying the Schengen Accord following a move by France - the 2001 regulation).