Traveling to the European Union is soon going to be a bit more difficult for Russian citizens. The European foreign ministers have agreed today the total suspension of the visa facilitation agreement between the EU and Russia. “This will significantly reduce the number of new visas granted by member states”, the procedures “will be longer and more difficult”, explained in Prague the high representative of EU Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell, who has defended this measure in contrast to the total veto of Russian tourism demanded by Estonia, Finland and other countries that share a border with Russia.
The visa facilitation agreement between the EU and Russia, in force since 2007, was already partially suspended since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine for certain groups of people, such as politicians, a measure that is added to the veto on entry to the community territory that European governments have decreed for hundreds of allies of Vladimir Putin, businessmen and Russian military through the successive rounds of sanctions. “We agree that we must go further,” said the head of European diplomacy. “It cannot be that things continue as usual with Russia, there cannot be business as usual with Russia.”
The main reason given by Borrell to justify the new restrictions is the increase in border crossings by land into these countries by Russian citizens, who in some cases thus access air routes to the EU that are not available in their country. This activity, on the rise since mid-July, “has become a security risk for border states,” said Borrell, who commented with disgust that “many Russians” have been seen traveling for pleasure or shopping “as if there was no war in Ukraine.”
This is precisely the argument that several Nordic and Baltic countries have put forward to demand from their European partners that the Union completely close its doors to Russian tourists, so that ordinary citizens feel that the Kremlin’s decisions have consequences as well. for them. Moscow called the measure “irrational” and warned that it would not go unanswered. Most European countries – including, notably, France and Germany – have favored a less drastic measure than a total ban on Russian tourism. With the suspension of the visa facilitation agreement, the procedures will go from costing 35 to 80 euros and, by ceasing to have preferential treatment, they will take longer and will be subject to more conditions. The decision will be formalized in the coming days.
Before the start of the ministerial meeting, in an informal format, the Governments of Germany and France circulated a joint document in which they set out their reasons for opposing the ban on Russian tourism, for example the need to allow travel and exposure to European ideas of people who do not support the war or the risk that the measure would feed the Kremlin’s victim narrative. The suspension of the visa facilitation agreement is far from the aspirations of Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, which have announced that they will adopt “temporary measures at the national level” to limit the entry of Russian citizens to the Schengen area through their borders.
The restrictions could go further: the ministers have agreed that not only will it be necessary to reduce the number of new visas for Russian travelers but also to make a decision on the millions of documents already issued. “Something must also be done about this, this situation requires a common approach,” said Borrell, who announced that the European Commission is going to examine what can be done.
