AFP Digital passport control at the Channel Tunnel, where people can travel between EU member France and non-EU member England
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 20:00
The European Commission wants to make it easier to prevent travel to the European Union without a visa. The EU executive has presented a bill to make this possible. In this way, the committee wants to combat illegal migration.
Citizens from sixty non-EU countries can come to Europe without a visa. They may stay there for a maximum of ninety days. According to the commission, it can deliver “economic, social and cultural benefits” and promote tourism and business.
In 2019, almost 400 million people used it, according to figures from the European Commission.
NOS
But the committee also sees risks. For example, people from a country where a visa for the EU is required travel to a country where this is not the case and from there travel illegally to the EU.
Multiple measures
The committee wants to be given the option to suspend visa-free travel from certain countries for a longer period of time. This is now allowed for a maximum of 27 months. This must be a maximum of 36 months.
The Commission also wants to make it easier to terminate agreements with a partner country, for example if a non-EU country has a more flexible visa policy than the European Union itself. According to Brussels, then there is a risk that people will travel illegally to the EU via a partner country, as happened from Serbia.
If the number of asylum applications from partner countries suddenly increases sharply, it should become easier to temporarily stop visa-free travel.
Comments
CDA MEP Jeroen Lenaers is happy with the proposal. He states that visa-free travel “should not become a back door for illegal migration.”
With adjusted rules, illegal migration can be better limited, says Lenaers. “The benefits of visa-free travel can only be enjoyed by countries that use it in a responsible and reliable manner. This updated law finally gives us the tools to quickly intervene when countries do not.”
Thijs Reuten of the PvdA says that the proposal is an inefficient way to combat migration. “It looks cool, but will have little effect,” says Reuten. According to him, an emergency procedure is necessary “to be able to act quickly if an emergency actually occurs”.
Migration scientist Hein de Haas considers the Commission’s proposal to be reasonable. “However, the EU should carefully consider whether visa restrictions actually encourage migrants not to return or to end up illegally,” he says. According to De Haas, research shows that “the more difficult you make it to come, the more migrants stay.”
Follow-up
The bill was sent to the European Parliament and EU ministers today. They must first both take their own position on the proposal. Then they will negotiate a final verdict.
2023-10-18 18:00:15
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