Bloomberg: Germany and France urge not to ban Russians from entering the EU
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France and Germany believe that the EU should continue issuing visas to Russians not associated with the government, especially students, artists, scientists and various professionals, reports Bloomberg with reference to a document prepared for the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Prague next week.
“Realizing the concerns of some member states of the bloc on this issue, we should not underestimate the transformative power of personal experience of living in democratic systems, especially for future generations,” the representatives of France and Germany argue in the document.
The compromise, which is expected to be discussed by EU foreign ministers, will be that Russians traveling to the countries of the bloc will pay more and go through additional bureaucratic procedures.
In early August, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on Western countries to ban Russians from entering Europe. After this proposal to limit the issuance of Schengen visas to Russians began to sound in some EU countries.
Thus, Latvia, Lithuania and the Czech Republic have already suspended the issuance of visas to Russians. And Estonia decided to close the borders for Russian citizens with visas that were issued by the republic. Finland also restricted the issuance of visas. The country’s government has already reduced the number of visa applications accepted in Russia to 500 per day. And from the beginning of September, no more than 100 applications will be accepted per day.
At the same time, several EU countries spoke out against a complete ban on issuing visas to Russians. At first, the initiative was criticized by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Later, the authorities of Cyprus and Greece opposed. Also, the idea is not supported by the head of diplomacy of the European Union, Josep Borrell. The day before, Hungary opposed the restrictions.
On August 30-31, a meeting of the heads of the EU foreign ministries is to be held. It is also planned to discuss proposals on visa restrictions for Russian citizens.
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