Foreign affairs ministers of European Union member states have agreed to terminate the procedure under which Russian citizens are issued with visas quickly. This was the response to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, as announced by the head of the EU Foreign Service Josep Borrel.
According to Borrel, ministers agreed relations with Moscow cannot go back to how they were before, adding that the agreement is to be completely terminated.
Termination of this agreement means now visa requests from Russian citizens will take longer to review and will cost more, added the head of the EU service.
«This will significantly reduce the number of visas issued by EU member states,» said Borrel.
Diplomats revealed that EU ministers failed to agree on a general bank of issue of tourist visas to Russian citizens. The reason is because member states have conflicting opinions on this topic.
Borrel said that the flow of Russian tourists to neighbouring countries has increased considerably since mid-July.
«This has become a security risks for these countries,» he said. «Additionally, we’ve seen many Russians who travel to rest and shop as though there is no war in Ukraine,» he added.
Leaning to the requests from EU member states in on the eastern border who wanted a stricter approach, Borrel stressed that countries bordering Russia «can take measures on a national scale to limit entry to the European Union».
He did say that any measures are to meet the rules of EU Schengen Area.
Borrel also stressed that it is important for members of Russian civil society to remain being able to travel to the EU.
Before the informal meeting of EU foreign affairs ministers, Poland and the three Baltic States – Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia – announced they will consider banning Russian citizens from entering if the EU fails to do it.
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The four countries noted the termination of the quick visa issue procedure for Russian citizens is the first step.
«But we must drastically limit the number of issued visas, mainly tourist visas to reduce the flow of Russian citizens to the European Union and Schengen Area,» as mentioned in the announcement from the four countries.
«While such measures will not be implemented across the EU, we […] will consider the option of imposing nation-wide temporary visa ban measures or limit border-crossing by Russian citizens who have EU visas,» the announcement mentioned.