Ministers of foreign affairs of EU agreed to stop agreement with Russian Federation on simplification of visa regime, - Borrell
The ministers of foreign affairs of the countries of the European Union have reached political agreements regarding the issuance of Schengen visas for citizens of the Russian Federation: the simplified procedure for issuing visas will be completely discontinued. Visas will be issued on an individual basis, taking into account personal circumstances.
This was announced in Prague at a press conference after the informal meeting of the Council at the level of foreign ministers, Josep Borrell, the high representative of the EU for foreign and security policy, Censor.NET informs with reference to Interfax-Ukraine.
"We have seen a significant increase in border crossings from Russia to neighboring countries since mid-July, which has become a security risk factor for these neighboring countries. In addition to this, we have seen many Russians traveling for pleasure and shopping as if in There is no war in Ukraine. The member states believe that we are not conducting more cases as before and this cannot be the case... We believe that more should be done. Therefore, we agreed, politically, this is not a legislative text, but political agreement, we agreed that something should be done. First: the complete suspension of the EU-Russia visa facilitation agreement. A complete stop," Borrell said.
Borrell explained that this would significantly reduce the number of new visas issued by member states.
"It will be a more difficult and longer process. And the number of new visas will be significantly reduced. This is a joint approach that will prevent "visa shopping" by Russians, traveling here and there," the head of European diplomacy added.
