EU Parliament adopts new rules on visa reciprocity

Reciprocity rules enabling the EU to reimpose visa requirements for nationals of countries that still impose them on EU citizens were adopted by the European Parliament on Thursday. The new EU visa regulation deals with third countries that persist in requiring EU citizens to obtain visas, even though their own citizens are exempt from EU visa requirements, noted an EP press release. The USA, for example, currently requires visas for EU citizens from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Romania and Poland, and Canada requires them for those from the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Romania. But American and Canadian citizens do not need a visa for travelling to the EU. Under the new rules, the EU will also be able to temporarily suspend its visa-free travel arrangements with third countries to halt substantial and sudden increases in irregular migrant numbers or unfounded asylum requests. "The reciprocity principle that a third country benefitting from an EU visa waiver must extend the same treatment to EU citizens is a key feature of the EU's common visa policy", said EP Civil Liberties Committee rapporteur Agustin Diaz de Mera. This mechanism will enable the EU to put more pressure on certain third countries to obey the visa reciprocity rule, he added.