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EU foreign ministers this week backed a suspension of a visa facilitation agreement with Moscow to limit the number of travel permits issued after some eastern member states threatened to unilaterally close their borders to Russian tourists.
Some countries have called for joint action to prevent ordinary Russians from traveling to the European Union on tourist visas, in the latest challenge to the bloc’s attempts to preserve unity among the 27 members and punish Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
Countries including the Czech Republic and Poland stopped issuing visas to Russian tourists after President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on Brussels to impose a total ban, echoing the appeal.
But Russians with other visas continue to issue the travel documents, allowing them to travel anywhere in the Schengen free movement area.
As a first step, ministers plan to secure political support for blocking an EU-Russia visa facilitation deal at a two-day meeting in Prague starting on Tuesday, three officials involved in the talks told the Financial Times.
“It is not appropriate for Russian tourists to walk in our cities, on our seafronts,” said a senior EU official involved in the talks. “We need to send a signal to the Russian people that this war is not okay, it is not acceptable.”
A 2007 agreement on free movement of government officials and businessmen was partially suspended at the end of February. A broader ban would make Russians applying for all EU visas, requiring more documents, more expensive and significantly increasing waiting times.
“We are in a special situation and it requires special measures. We want to go beyond suspending visa facilitation,” a senior EU official said, adding that deep changes could come by the end of the year.
However, there is no agreement on further steps Brussels could take, or on proposals such as reducing the number of EU visas granted to Russians or ending them altogether, or extending any ban on Belarusian citizens. Invasion.
Some countries, including Germany, have warned against an outright ban. The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, who is leading the Prague talks, has said he opposes a ban on all Russian visas, saying the bloc needs to be more “selective”.
Finland, Poland and the Baltic countries bordering Russia have indicated that they are ready to stop allowing Russians with tourist visas to enter their territory, citing the national security exceptions of the Schengen Agreement.
With the suspension of air travel between the EU and Russia, many Russian tourists use these countries as a transit route to other EU destinations. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said last week that 30 percent of Russians traveling to the EU go through the Baltic states.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielus Landsbergis described the agreement between the 27 as “very sustainable and legally valid” and said, “I look forward to finding a common European solution on how to significantly limit the flow of Russian tourists to Europe.”
However, he added, “If no common solution is found, we will not rule out a regional agreement between countries where Russian tourists who abuse European hospitality have caused the greatest harm.”
He said countries that support a total ban on Russians visiting the EU for tourism do not want full border closures and exceptions for humanitarian, asylum-seeking and allowing dissidents of Putin’s government to flee.
EU defense ministers meeting in Prague on Monday will discuss options for a Brussels-led training mission for Ukrainian troops.
Borrell said last week that potential training centers following a similar initiative in the UK would be established in EU countries near Ukraine this summer.
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