War in Ukraine: EU suspends deal to ease visa regime for Russians

At their meeting in Prague, the EU foreign ministers decided to extend and make it more difficult to issue visas for Russian nationals.

On Wednesday, August 31, EU foreign ministers decided to suspend the visa facilitation agreement with Russia, but did not decide on a broader visa ban, as requested by some member states.

Josep Borrell said the ministerial meeting in Prague had agreed that relations with Moscow “cannot remain unchanged” and that the deal reached in 2007 should be “completely suspended”. After the informal meeting in Prague, he said the suspension will make it “more difficult” and “longer” for Russian nationals to obtain visas. “This will significantly reduce the number of new visas issued by EU member states,” he added.

Josep Borrell made a concession to eastern EU members who had called for tougher measures, saying that countries bordering Russia “can take measures at the national level to restrict entry into the European Union”. However, he clarified that these measures should be in line with the rules of the Schengen area and stressed the importance of allowing members of Russian civil society to continue to travel to the European Union.

Before the meeting, Poland and the three Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) said they would consider banning Russian travelers if the EU as a whole did not do so. In a joint statement by AFP, the four countries said suspending the agreement was “a necessary first step”. “But we need to drastically reduce the number of visas issued, especially tourist visas, in order to reduce the flow of Russian citizens to the European Union and the Schengen area,” they added. They stressed that this measure should have exceptions “for dissidents as well as for other humanitarian cases”.

“Until such measures are in place at EU level, we will (…) consider introducing temporary visa bans or border crossing restrictions at national level for foreign nationals. Russian citizens with EU visas,” read the statement, which was published in English was written.