EU Council weights abolishing visa regime with all Eastern Partnership countries

The European Union has warned that it will start negotiations on a visa-free system with the Eastern partnership countries that do not yet have it, only if certain conditions met. Report informs, citing Interfax, the EU Council resolution on the Eastern partnership policy adopted yesterday also expressed concern about a large number of applications for asylum in the EU from citizens of some partner countries.

Citizens of three of the six Eastern partnership member countries-Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine enjoy visa-free travel to the EU for short-term trips. Citizens of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Belarus require visas.

The Council underlines that to ensure mobility in a secure and well-managed environment, the successful implementation of existing visa liberalization action plans through continuous fulfillment of relevant benchmarks, and of the visa facilitation and readmission agreements are essential.

The possibility to launch new visa liberalization dialogues with the remaining countries, whose citizens require visas to travel to the EU, will be considered, in due course, if conditions allow.

These conditions, in particular, include compliance with the existing travel regime, satisfactory implementation of visa facilitation and readmission agreements.

The Council recalls the mutual benefits and responsibilities from the visa suspension mechanism and notes that the high number of unfounded asylum applications by some Eastern partner countries nationals in the EU Member States raises concerns. The Commission is monitoring the situation, especially in the context of the reporting under the visa suspension mechanism.