New mechanism: human rights breaches and ‘golden passports’ can lead to suspension of visa-free travel to the EU

On 17 June, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament reached an agreement on grounds for suspending visa-free travel for short stays into the EU.

A reform of the mechanism to suspend short-stay visa-free travel into the EU (in place since 2013) will allow the EU to respond more flexibly when countries backslide on important principles of their visa waiver agreement, which can include security concerns and human rights violations.

Existing grounds include an increase in the number of asylum applications from nationals of a country for which the asylum recognition rate is low or an increase in the number of third-country nationals who are refused entry or found to be overstaying.

The Council and the EP agreed on a number of new grounds which will trigger the suspension mechanism:

• lack of alignment of a country’s visa-free regime with the EU’s visa policy, in cases where – owing to this country’s geographical proximity to the EU – this may lead to increased non-authorised arrivals of citizens of other third countries;
• the operation of an investor citizenship scheme, whereby citizenship is granted to people who have no genuine link to the third country concerned, in exchange for pre-determined payments or investments (“golden passports”);
• hybrid threats and deficiencies in document security legislation and procedures;
• a deterioration in the EU’s external relations with a third country, in particular when it comes to human rights and fundamental freedoms or serious breaches of the UN Charter.

The duration of temporary suspension of the visa exemption will increase from the current period of 9 months to 12 months. This initial period can be extended by a further 24 months (instead of 18 months under the current system). This temporary suspension phase will allow the European Commission to engage in dialogue with the third country so that it can address the reasons for the suspension.

The Council and the EP also agreed to improve the mechanism by making it possible to only limit the visa freedom of decision-makers responsible for breaching fundamental rights and external relations obligations. “Currently, all citizens are affected in the second phase of the suspension, but this can be disproportionate where a government is clearly responsible for the situation,” says a press release by the Council of the EU.

Under the new rules, the additional 24-month suspension phase would not automatically affect the entire population. Instead, in the above situations, the EU could decide to continue targeting  government officials and diplomats.

The EU can also decide to permanently revoke the visa-free travel regime if the third country does not address the reasons that led to the temporary suspension.

Nationals of 61 third countries can currently travel to the Schengen area for short stays (map of current visa agreements). Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine’s nationals can travel to the EU without a visa. Armenia and Azerbaijan have simplified visa procedures. Currently, Belarus is one of three countries (along with Russia and Vanuatu) with which visa agreements have been completely suspended.

Find out more

Press release