Luxembourg, 06/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - The EU Presidency said on Thursday that it wished to know why Washington is still refusing access to its territory of nationals of several Union Member States if they do not have a visa. “We want the US to say why they have put this kind of measure in place”, Interior Minister Kari Rajamäki said, judging that the situation is “not very pleasant”.
The measure, considered discriminatory, concerns Greece and the latest countries to join the EU in 2004, less Slovenia (EUROPE 9279). Addressing the Presidency and Commission, several countries have even insisted that the EU should impose visa reciprocity with the United States. “Greece and the new Member States have stressed that European solidarity is weak”, a European source said. Mr Rajamäki nonetheless stressed that they “should not fall out with the Americans”. The German Interior Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, said for his part that it was not a question of creating a “new problem” with the United States. This subject will be on the agenda of a ministerial meeting between the EU and USA in Washington, in November.
EU Justice and Home Ministers also reached a political agreement on Thursday on the proposal for a regulation establishing European procedure for cases of cross-border disputes about amounts under €2,000. They also agreed on facilitating light border traffic at external land borders. On Friday, an agreement was reached on the recognition and implementation in the EU of confiscation decisions. Regarding criminal justice, the justice ministers did not agree on the different texts under review, especially on that concerning facilitation of prisoner transfer between Member States. During the EU-Ukraine ministerial troika of 4 October, the EU was not able to move forward on visa facilitation and readmission procedures mainly because of the deadlock over re-entry conditions. (bc)