European Union is threatning to require visas from Americans and Canadians
BRUSSELS—The European Union’s executive will discuss on Tuesday the right of U.S. citizens to visit the bloc without a visa, a spokeswoman said Friday.
The European Commission’s discussion is a response to the fact that the U.S. has yet to grant visa-free entry to the whole of the EU, despite pressure from the bloc. The discussion could lead to EU visa waivers for U.S. citizens being shelved within months, although the bloc has some wiggle room over when it must act.
In January 2014, a revised visa system was implemented, giving the commission power to temporarily suspend visa exemptions for foreign countries that didn’t lift their own visa requirements. The new rules were primarily an attempt to put pressure on countries such as the U.S.
In April 2014, the commission formally reported that citizens of five of its member states—Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Cyprus—that their citizens were still required to apply for visas when traveling to the U.S. This notification triggered a two-year window for the commission to examine the problem, the deadline for which passes on April 12.
Mina Andreeva, a spokeswoman for the commission, said the executive’s President Jean-Claude Juncker had put the issue on the agenda of next Tuesday’s meeting, adding that “our goal remains full reciprocal visa waiver with our strategic partners and we are working constructively with them on this with that in mind.”
Friday evening, a State Department official said the U.S. has maintained “an open dialogue with EU officials” on the issue but that the five EU countries in question “have not met the requirements for the U.S. visa waiver program.”
http://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-faces-threat-of-losing-eu-visa-waivers-1460120636
Yeah....that's a great idea, Europe. You are getting hit with terrorist attacks, a flood of migrants, and now you want to do even more to make it harder for people to travel to Europe during the summer tourist season?
Starting to question the intelligence of the people running the EU.
= new reply since forum marked as read
