EU-USA: Visa Reciprocity: Commission responds to Parliament
03 May 2017
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EU-USA
Visa Reciprocity: Commission responds to Parliament
3.5.17
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"Today [2 May 2017], the European Commission responded to the European Parliament resolution calling on the Commission to adopt a delegated act to suspend the visa waiver for Canadian and American nationals.
The Commission considers that, in view of the significant progress achieved during the last year and the positive momentum of ongoing work, the temporary suspension of visa waivers for nationals of Canada and the United States would be counterproductive at this moment and would not serve the objective of achieving visa-free travel for all EU citizens. The Commission's diplomatic approach meanwhile has already started to bring tangible results: Canada lifted the visa requirements for some categories of Bulgarian and Romanian citizens on 1 May 2017 and is set to achieve full reciprocity as of 1 December 2017 and contacts have been re-launched with the new U.S. administration to push for full visa reciprocity for the five EU Member States concerned [Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland and Romania]."
See: European Commission press release: Visa Reciprocity: Commission responds to Parliament (pdf)
Background: Parliament asks EU Commission to press for full US-EU visa reciprocity (EP press release, 2 March 2017, pdf):
"The EU Commission is legally obliged to take measures temporarily reintroducing visa requirements for US citizens, given that Washington still does not grant visa-free access to nationals of five EU countries. In a resolution approved on Thursday, MEPs urge the Commission to adopt the necessary legal measures “within two months”. "
See also: European Commission: EU visa reciprocity mechanism - Questions and Answers (pdf)
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