Borrell confirms freeze of visa facilitation agreement with Russia

EU foreign ministers have made a political decision to completely freeze the visa facilitation agreement with Russia, EU diplomat Josep Borrell said.

“We have made a political decision to completely suspend the visa facilitation agreement with Russia. This means that the number of visas issued will significantly decrease, it will be more difficult and longer to obtain visas,” Borrell stressed (quote according to TASS).

According to him, the EU has been witnessing a serious influx of Russian citizens to neighboring countries since mid-July, which “threatens the security of these states.” EU countries agreed on the need to issue visas to “specific groups of Russians,” he added.

Germany was the initiator of this idea. German Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock previously noted that it was, in particular, the termination of the issuance of multi-year Schengen visas to Russian citizens. This step, Burbock believes, will be a compromise between countries that want to completely ban Russians from entering the EU, and countries that are not ready for such measures.

This issue was discussed by the foreign ministers in Prague during informal meetings held on August 30-31. Poland, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia bordering on Russia are demanding that the European Commission tighten its visa policy towards Russia. At the same time, a number of countries do not support a complete ban on issuing visas to Russians and urge the rest of the EU countries to find a compromise solution.

As the FT previously reported, the Scandinavian and Baltic countries, if a common decision is not made, will introduce entry restrictions for Russians at the national level. Some of them have already taken appropriate measures.

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