EU to tighten visa-Free travel rules amid rising security concerns

Georgia, the first country on the list ?

Under monitoring, experts name countries the Western Balkan region. As an example, the latest assessment of the European Commission Report on Serbia‘s potential accession to the EU flags concerns of limited progress in the fight against organised crime.

However, the country which faces the highest risk of suspension is Georgia. Tbilisi increasingly turns it back to the EU and goes nearer to Russia. An end to visa-free travel is looming as recent legislation in Georgia is modeled after its former Soviet masters (anti-LGBTQ law and Foreign Agents Registration Act law). Since January, the Commission already suspended visa-free travel for Georgia’s diplomatic passport holders.

Eastern Caribbean countries such as Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Lucia with their lax investments conditions and investor-citizenship schemes are also under monitoring.

The regulation also makes it easier to trigger the suspension mechanism. For instance a threshold of 30% – instead of the previous threshold of 50% – quantifies substantial increases of cases of refused entry and overstay, asylum applications and serious criminal offences.

Longer suspension periods

The duration of the initial suspension of the visa exemption will increase to 12 months (from 9 months currently). This initial period can be extended by a further 24 months (instead of 18 months now). This longer temporary suspension phase will allow the EU to engage with the third country in question to remedy the circumstances that led to the suspension (before the visa-free regime can be permanently revoked).

The new mechanism also foresees a targeted approach to ending the visa exemption. Whereas currently all citizens of a country are affected by the suspension of the visa-free regime when the initial period is being extended, under the new rules the additional 24-month suspension phase would not automatically affect the entire population. Instead, the EU could decide to (continue) targeting government officials and diplomats. The new regulation should be adopted before the end of the year.