Brussels, 29/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 25 June, Ambassador John Bruton, who heads the European Commission delegation to the United States, expressed his great concern regarding the Travel Promotion Act of 2009 pending before Congress, which provides for a $10 fee to be paid for entry to the United States in order to “promote leisure, business and scholarly travel” to that country. The fee will apply to tourists and businessmen who come from countries benefiting from the visa waiver programme, as is the case for 22 EU countries. “Charging $10 per passenger would simply mean erecting yet another barrier to travel to the United States and would be a step backwards in our joint endeavour to ease transatlantic mobility”, Mr Bruton said. “Once introduced, the visitor tax could be increased to meet unrelated funding needs (…)This tax will only apply to non-Americans coming to the United States, and not to Americans and is thus discriminatory”, he deplored. Furthermore, the introduction of the tax would be partly used to finance the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA), required since early January by the United States for entry onto American soil. “The imposition of the fee is a change in the understanding under which ESTA was established as a security programme by the US”, Mr Bruton stressed. He went on to point out: “ESTA remains unpopular in Europe. Charging a fee as well will not help matters”. “This risks undermining the security objectives of the system”, he said, as the “link of the visitor tax with ESTA may discourage travellers from registering their information well in advance to avoid losing the fee if they end up not travelling”. The ambassador went on to warn: “The European Commission would also have to re-examine if ESTA can be considered as a visa in disguise, with potentially negative implications on reciprocal visa-free travel between the European Union and the United States. (…) Furthermore, we are concerned that with the establishment of this entrance tax by the Congress, there will be a demand for Americans to pay the same fees for travel to Europe, which could further depress transatlantic travel”. Nearly 13 million Europeans went to the United States last year. (B.C./transl.jl)