The EU Foreign Ministers did not come to a consensus on the ban on issuing visas to Russian citizens at a meeting on August 31 in Prague. So far, the bloc has agreed only to freeze the visa facilitation agreement with Russia. Although even this decision is only political in nature, since the meeting was informal. The countries of association are still divided into those who are looking for compromises on the issue of admitting Russians to the Schengen zone and who completely reject them. Also, the EU discussed new measures to support Kyiv, including the creation of a training mission in one of the states neighboring Ukraine. However, there is still no consensus within the association on this issue.
Visa traffic
On August 31, a two-day meeting of EU Foreign Ministers ended in Prague. Key topics are support for Ukraine and new measures against the Russian Federation, including a visa boycott of Russians. That many countries opposed a complete ban on the issuance of documents to citizens of the Russian Federation, said Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó. Nevertheless, European ministers, as expected, announced their intention to suspend the 2007 visa facilitation agreement with the Russian Federation. This was confirmed at the final press conference by the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell, adding that at the same time the EU countries agreed on the need to issue visas to “specific groups of Russians.”
It should be noted that freezing the visa facilitation agreement will only complicate obtaining a Schengen visa. Now the fee will increase from €35 to €80, and the time for processing applications will also increase. It is possible that it will take six months to wait for a visa after submitting documents. Artur Muradyan, vice-president of the Association of Tour Operators of Russia (ATOR), told Izvestiya that, first of all, this EU decision will affect residents of Russian regions that cross the border with the EU, and not tourists.
“Under the current conditions, our border territories, in particular Kaliningrad and the Leningrad Region, will receive a greater blow,” said the ATOR representative.
At the same time, according to him, under an optimistic scenario, the number of multivisas issued with a validity period of six months or more will be reduced.
– On the other hand, nothing radical happened at the ministerial meeting. The scenario that the Baltic countries dream about did not happen. We hope that the common sense of those EU members who have spoken out against the ban will allow them to maintain a policy of free tourism. And, in particular, Spain, Italy and Greece will continue to issue visas. Most likely they will examine the documents more carefully, and we will return to the practice of obtaining visas for the duration of the trip.– concluded Artur Muradyan.
Josep Borrell also noted: since mid-July, the EU has been observing a serious influx of Russian citizens to neighboring countries, which threatens the security of these states. Based on this, the EU Foreign Ministers instructed the European Commission to prepare recommendations on what countries should do with visas already issued to Russians. Anyway, The results of the informal meeting of the EU Foreign Ministers cannot be interpreted as a practical solution to the visa issue. The final verdict is yet to come. So far, the countries of the association are still divided into two groups: those who seek compromises on this issue and completely reject them.
The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the presiding Czech Republic, Jan Lipavsky, said that EU is ‘pretty close’ to agreeing a Schengen ban on Russian elites without imposing full-blown visa restrictions on Russiansbecause the bloc cannot unanimously agree on this issue. As a consensus, Jan Lipavsky proposed to take a decision to limit the passage of Russians to the EU through land borders.
Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said it’s impossible to cancel an entire country. “Sanctions should be directed against Putin’s Kremlin system, not against the Russian people. Europe creates an image of disunity, which is used by Russian propaganda,” the minister added. His German colleague Annalena Berbock noted that other Russians in need of protection should still be able to “breathe the air of freedom” in the EU. At the same time, on August 30, the head of the German Foreign Ministry just proposed withdrawing from the visa facilitation agreement.
Denmark, in turn, intends to limit the issuance of visas for Russian tourists, and Ireland – to come to a stricter system for Russians coming to the EU. Belgian Foreign Minister Adja Labib spoke out against the complete isolation of the population of the Russian Federation, proposing to direct efforts against specific people who support the NWO. The country can’t issue tourist visas to Russians “as it used to” because Moscow has expelled a third of the Belgian embassy’s diplomatic staff, she said, but the kingdom will oppose “indiscriminate measures.”
So far, only Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland and Poland are firmly calling for an uncompromising solution, demanding The European Commission to tighten the visa policy towards Russia. The head of the Latvian Foreign Ministry, Edgars Rinkevics, noted that the visa ban is a security issue related to the further imposition of sanctions against the Russian Federation. According to him, this decision “has nothing to do with collective punishment.”. The Estonian side supported the termination of the EU visa facilitation agreement with the Russian Federation, but considers this decision insufficient.
– This (the situation in Ukraine. – Izvestia) is the fault of the President of the Russian Federation, not the Russians. But Russians must understand that Putin’s supporters have a responsibility. A ban on issuing visas to Russians could probably make Russian society more aware of the serious condemnation of the actions of their president, Hermann Terch, a member of the European Parliament (EP) delegation for relations with Russia (D-RU), told Izvestia.
However, other EP representatives also believe that the idea of forcing Russians to oppose their government in this way will only confirm their fears about Russophobia in the EU..
— It is not clear how this should change the policy of the Russian government. It affects civilians, not officials. All those who advocate this idea appeal to the idea of collective punishment – not only disgusting, but also prohibited by international law. They are only trying to separate or make life difficult for millions of bi-ethnic families, alienate Western-friendly Russians, and confirm the presence of Russophobia in the EU.. This is vengeful, counterproductive and stupid,” EP deputy from Ireland, member of the D-RU delegation Claire Daly told Izvestiya.
Note that EU Ambassador to Moscow Markus Ederer said in an interview with RTVI that the EU countries should not impose a ban on the issuance of Schengen visas to Russians, as this will only strengthen the positions of the Russian leadership. MEP from Slovakia Miroslav Radakovski told Izvestia that he does not support any restrictions on the issuance of visas and will vote against this decision at the plenary session. “As a result this will be another pointless decision that I can’t characterize as nonsense in any other words”, he added.
French MP Thierry Marianne believes that some countries in Eastern and Northern Europe are simply trying to impose this decision on the rest of the Schengen area. “I doubt that things will go further than vague statements. Furthermore, if all European states really wanted to treat Russians as pariahs, there is another solution. The EU could, for example, issue visas with restrictions, according to which Russian citizens are welcome in France, but they do not have access to Estonia or Poland.“, – said the politician to Izvestia.
Moscow, in turn, will not leave Brussels’ decision unanswered. Press Secretary of the President of Russia Dmitry Peskov specified on the morning of August 31 that foreigners may also face inconvenience when traveling to Russia if the EU authorities adopt restrictions on issuing visas to Russian citizens. He emphasized that visa restrictions ‘nothing good’ as they ‘would create inconvenience for people’.
mission Impossible
A day earlier, an informal meeting of EU defense ministers also ended, at which discussed military assistance to Kyiv and the possibility of creating a training mission of the association for training personnel in the Ukrainian army. The Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksiy Reznikov also joined the discussion. As Josep Borrell said at a press conference on 30 August, the ministers reached political agreements to begin work on the mission in close cooperation with Member States, Ukraine and other international partners. At the same time, the head of European diplomacy noted that no official decision was made, since it was an informal meeting.
August 29 agency Bloombergwho managed to get acquainted with the relevant document of the EU Foreign Service, said that within the framework of the new mission The EU can offer the Armed Forces of Ukraine sniper, combat engineer or officer training. At the same time, it says that the training mission will be a temporary measure and may eventually be deployed on the territory of Ukraine., “if conditions permit and the member countries so decide”. As stated in the document, “the deployment of the mission will be significantly accelerated” if one of the EU countries neighboring Ukraine offers to host the mission. It has not yet been officially announced in which country of the association the work of the training mission can begin, however Tallinn has already taken the initiative.
“Estonia has been contributing to the training of the Ukrainian armed forces for some time now and will continue to do so, so we are ready to participate in this mission as well,” Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said following an informal meeting in Prague.
Izvestia sent inquiries to the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia.
As the representative of the EU foreign service, Peter Stano, told Izvestia, “there is no decision yet on the details of the deployment of the mission, so everything related to the mandate, scope, timing or location is pure speculation at the moment.”
Dmitry Danilov, head of the department of European security at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted in an interview with Izvestia that the question of in which country such a mission could be deployed is not so fundamental.
– This will be the mission of the EU and its collective responsibility, because the decision must be taken unanimously. However here a lot of other questions arise: what tasks will this mission perform, what security services will European instructors train in this case, and whythe expert stressed.
He recalled that the goal of the EU training mission, for example, in Africa, is to strengthen the national defense forces and bloc national security.
– The question also arises, for which territory of Ukraine the mission will be prepared in general. If for Ukraine within its borders recognized by the EU (Crimea and Donbass, and so on), how do they plan to train national security officers to ensure the performance of functions to restore state sovereignty, as the EU interprets this? This is a very explosive topic. I would like to think that European countries understand that there are no answers to these questions, which means that such a mission is unlikely to take place,” Dmitry Danilov added.
The head of the Military Committee of the European Union, General Robert Brieger, said that The mission of the EU does not imply the participation of the countries of the community in the hostilities in Ukraine. However, it is too early to talk about unity of opinion in the EU on this issue, as well as on the visa boycott.. Before the meeting, Austrian Defense Minister Claudia Tanner said that there were many questions about the plan for deploying an EU training mission for Ukraine, and it was not clear whether such a mission could work in principle. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto does not believe that such a mission should be carried out at the EU level. This issue, in his opinion, should be attributed to national competence.
In Moscow, this idea is perceived as a step towards further escalation. Commenting on the initiative of Brussels, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the EU intends to create training bases to “train” “terrorists” for the Kyiv regime, hiding behind the creation of a mission to train Ukrainian soldiers.
#Prague #abolition #simplified #visa #regime