European Union to impose a ban on tourist visas for Russian nationals

Foreign ministers in the EU are reportedly planning to approve a ban on a 2007 visa facilitation agreement inked with Russia on account of the Ukraine war.

As per reports, foreign ministers are expected to give political backing to the ban during the two-day informal meeting scheduled to be held in Prague. The move will extend the partial ban imposed earlier in February on Russian business leaders and Government officials, which will now include Russian national applicants for EU visas.

According to the guidelines issued by European Commission, this will make the process of EU visas more complex, bureaucratic, and expensive, along with increasing the waiting time for approval.

Additional measures to curb EU travel for Russian citizens, including limiting the number of EU visas to be issued or completely banning travel, have not been decided yet, as per the report.

Following the execution of their visa restrictions, Finland, the Czech Republic, and Estonia have urged for an EU-wide collective decision and called for enforcing a complete ban on Russian citizens travelling to the bloc.

However, countries like Germany and the commission have requested to restrain from banning tourist visas or banning traveling of Russian nationals to the bloc completely. Additionally, critics have also brought up humanitarian concerns.

For those unaware, a visa by any one country offers access to all 26 nations that make up the Schengen passport-free area.

Finland, which earlier said that Russians were dodging the closure of EU territory by using Helsinki airport as a gateway, announced recently that it would restrict visa applications from Russia to one-tenth of the current figures.

The EU has already slammed Russia with numerous economic and Governmental sanctions following its invasion of Ukraine, including banning Russian airlines from EU boundaries.

Furthermore, the new plan of restricting Russian tourists to the EU occurred recently after nations witnessed many Russians arriving via neighboring EU countries for summer holidays.

Source Credit - https://www.business-standard.com/article/international/eu-ready-to-suspend-2007-visa-agreement-with-russia-over-ukraine-report-122082900014_1.html