Should Russians be allowed to enter EU countries for leisure? EU foreign ministers are far from united on whether and to what extent to bar Russians from travelling within the bloc following the Ukraine invasion.
EU foreign minister meeting informally in Prague on Wednesday (31 August) are likely to agree to suspend a visa facilitation agreement with Moscow and make Russians wait longer and pay more for their visas, EU diplomats said.
But the bloc is likely to remain split over an outright EU tourist ban for Russian nationals.
The current discussion is centred on short-stay visas that allow travel for up to 90 days throughout the 26-country Schengen zone, while member states debate how to keep their doors open to human rights campaigners and dissidents and exemption groups.
Over the past weeks, Russia’s immediate neighbours Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have urged Brussels to ban Russian tourists in the EU’s Schengen common travel zone, while several of them have unilaterally suspended issuing visas to most Russians.
They argue the step should be taken to protect national security and the integrity of EU sanctions.
As part of the EU sanctions, there are no direct flights between Russian and EU airports.
But a total of 998,085 citizens of Russia have legally entered the EU through land border crossing points, mostly Finland and Estonia, since the beginning of the war in Ukraine by 22 August, according to data from Europe’s border agency, Frontex.
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The majority of Russians who entered the EU during the above-mentioned period held residence permits, valid visas, or dual citizenship.
“Such a situation is a circumvention of air travel sanctions the EU agreed upon earlier in spring – and we need to close this loophole now,” Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told EURACTIV last week.
“There is no place for tourism,” Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said, who is hosting the informal two-day meeting in Prague.
Tightening visa restrictions would “send a signal to the elite in Moscow and Saint Petersburg”, he added.
Next to the discussion of the ban, the Czechs have meanwhile also suggested suspending a 2007 deal that eased visa applications for Russian tourists, which would make procedures for Russians aiming to enter the bloc more bureaucratic and expensive.
The potential compromise in the absence of a tourist ban could also see measures to significantly slow down visa processing by additional paperwork or reduced staffing in European consulates in Russia, EU diplomats suggested.
This would also include considerations to make it more difficult for Russians to be granted multiple-entry or five-year visas.
“If all 27 EU countries fail to reach an agreement, a regional solution for the countries most affected by the flow of Russian tourists may be sought in the future,” said Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis.
Baltic states, Poland and Finland could ban Russian tourists, says Lithuania
EU members Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Finland, which all share a border with Russia, may stop Russian tourists from entering their countries if the EU does not enact a union-wide ban, Lithuania’s foreign minister said on Tuesday (23 August).
However, EU diplomats from the region emphasised in private that they would prefer a European solution equivalent to the closure of airspace earlier in March.
Asked by EURACTIV about the enforceability of the Eastern proposals for an EU solution, EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell reiterated that “a complete ban for all Russians at any moment, for any reason, is not a good idea.”
“Cutting our relationship with the entire Russian population would not help,” Borrell said, adding: “We have to review the way that some Russians get visas and this needs to be coordinated at EU level to ensure a coordinated approach”.
Opposing front
Meanwhile, a number of member states, including EU powerhouses Germany and France as well as Hungary, Luxembourg and Austria have raised objections and lobbied against a ban on Russian tourism.
Berlin and Paris urged checks on Russian visa applicants for potential security risks but advised the EU to let in students, artists or scholars, according to a non-paper circulated ahead of the meeting.
“We should not underestimate the transformative power of experiencing life in democratic systems first-hand, especially for future generations,” they said in the joint document.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told reporters she would be against the ban as “it is crucial not to punish dissidents who are trying to leave Russia”, which was echoed by French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna who said it was important to distinguish between those who are to blame for the war and those who are not.
“And we… have to retain our ties to the latter,” Colonna said, singling out Russian artists, students and journalists.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, whose country has resisted efforts to isolate Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine, also objected.
“I don’t think that the visa ban is an appropriate decision under the current circumstances,” he said.
And Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said: “The EU must not make a sweeping judgement on 140 million people.”
Greece and Cyprus have early on already spoken out against it for economic reasons.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin slammed talk of a tourist visa ban as “irrational.”
Describing the calls for a visa ban as an example of the West’s “anti-Russian agenda”, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “Step by step, unfortunately, both Brussels and individual European capitals are demonstrating an absolute lack of reason.”
Source: euractiv.com
