The European Commission has put forward a proposal to reform the EU’s common visa policy with the goal of making it easier for tourists to obtain a visa to come to Europe, while strengthening security and “mitigating irregular migration risks”. According to the EU migration commissioner, the EU will “introduce stricter conditions for processing visas when a partner country does not cooperate sufficiently on the readmission of irregular migrants”.
Under the proposal, if the European Commission finds that countries are uncooperative on readmitting its nationals who are to be returned from the EU, the Commission can toughen rules on granting visas, including changing the processing time of applications, the length of validity of visas issued, the cost of visa fees and the exemption of such fees for certain travellers such as diplomats.
The proposal is presented as another measure of the European Commission under its European Agenda on Migration, namely the objective to “deliver on return and readmission”. This week the European Commission published a communication presenting the developments since November 2017 and reporting on the progress made under the European Agenda on Migration.
For further information:
- ECRE, Return: no safety in numbers – ECRE’s Analysis of Recent Developments in EU Policy on Return of Migrants, November 2017
- European Commission, EU Visa Policy: Commission puts forward proposals to make it stronger, more efficient and more secure, March 2018
- European Commission, Remarks by Commissioner Avramopoulos on the reform of the EU visa policy, progress made on migration and the Facility for Refugees in Turkey, March 2018
Photo: (CC) Harsha K R, January 2010
This article appeared in the ECRE Weekly Bulletin . You can subscribe to the Weekly Bulletin here.