Brussels, 04/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday the European Commission announced that it would be recommending the imposition of visas for US diplomats entering the EU because Washington is still refusing access to its territory for nationals from several Union countries who do not have visas. This reprisal could be adopted during a meeting on Thursday in Luxembourg of justice and home affairs EU ministers, indicated a spokesperson for the Commission, Friso Roscam-Abbing. He said that this was an extremely frustrating exercise for nationals from the countries concerned. The continuation of this measure, considered to be discriminatory, involves Greece and the most recent EU countries to join the EU in 2004, excluding Slovenia. The European Commissioner for Justice, Security and Freedom Franco Frattini wrote to the US Secretary for Internal Security, Michael Chertoff, on Wednesday, explaining to him that the EU found it “no longer understandable or acceptable” for the US to refuse ending the demand for visas, explained Roscam-Abbing. A European source regretted that “the strict position of the US could lead to tougher reprisals”. Several countries of the EU, including Greece and Slovakia have already put visa restrictions in place for US diplomats. During the publication of its second report on the situation of non-reciprocity with certain third countries on visa exemption issues, the Commission also recognised that despite some progress, reciprocity with Canada and Australia was “still along way off”. The main conclusions in the report demonstrate that reciprocity on visas has now been obtained with Uruguay, Costa Rica and Paraguay. Malaysia has also taken the necessary administrative provisions for re-establishing reciprocity and Brunei officially announced its intention to do likewise but that this would need a specific agreement with the European Community. The Commission will soon request the Council for authorisation to negotiate such an agreement. The Commission intends to present a new report before 31 March 2007. (bc)