The European Commission presented a proposal on Tuesday to suspend the visa facilitation agreement between the European Union and Russia, which would make it more expensive and harder for Russians to travel to EU member states.
European Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson announced the proposal at a press conference in Brussels, saying there was “no basis for a privileged relationship between Russia” and the European Union following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
This comes after European foreign ministers last week reached a political consensus to suspend the visa deal altogether.
“The proposal to suspend the Visa Facilitation Agreement will end all facilities for Russian citizens applying for short-stay visas in the Schengen area,” a European Commission press release said on Tuesday.
Johansson stressed that the proposal would ensure that “citizens of Russia will no longer have privileged access to the EU”.
Russians trying to enter the EU for tourism and leisure purposes will face a “longer” and “more expensive” process, the commissioner said. There will also be more restrictions on multiple-entry visas, Johansson added.
As part of this, the visa fee will increase from 35 euros ($34.66) to 80 euros ($79.23), while the deadline for a decision by consulates will increase from 10 days to 15 days. Visa applicants will also have to submit a longer list of supporting documents when applying for a visa, according to the press release.
Despite the suspension, the EU will remain “open to certain categories of Russian visa applicants traveling for essential purposes, including mainly family members of EU citizens, journalists, dissidents and representatives of civil society,” according to the press release.
What’s next?: The Commission must now wait for the European Council to consider the proposal to scrap the visa agreement in its entirety, the press release said. If approved by the European Council, the suspension will enter into force on the second day after its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
The bloc announced in the press release that it is also proposing a “common EU approach to not recognize Russian passports issued in occupied foreign territories, as Russia is currently expanding the practice of issuing ordinary Russian passports to more non-government-controlled regions of Ukraine, especially Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions’.
The EU stressed that its visa facilitation agreements “are based on mutual trust and respect for shared values between the EU and the country concerned”.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is incompatible with a relationship of trust and goes against the spirit of cooperation on which Visa Facilitation Agreements are based,” the bloc added.
