site.btaEC Postpones Reintroduction of EU Visas for US Citizens

EC Postpones Reintroduction of EU Visas for US Citizens

Brussels/Strasbourg, December 15 (BTA correspondent Nikolay Jeliazkov) - The European Commission will postpone the temporary reintroduction of visas for US citizens until the new US administration steps in office. A reintroduction of visas for 12 months would result in losses of 6.8 billion euro for the European economy. This transpired Wednesday evening from a statement by EU Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos before the European Parliament.

The EC was set to present a delegated act for visas' reintroduction in April when it became clear that the US would leave in place visa requirements for the citizens of Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus, Poland and Croatia. Under EU legislation, the Commission should have reinstated visas for US citizens for 12 months.

According to Avramopoulos, the reintroduction of visas would lead to the loss of 140,000 jobs in the European tourist industry as the number of US tourists will drop by 22 per cent.

Most speakers agreed that this is "a matter of principle" and stressed that EU rules require the Commission to present a delegated act to suspend an EU visa waiver if the country to which it was granted not offer full visa reciprocity to citizens of all EU member states. Some MEPs suggested that Parliament could bring this issue to the European Court of Justice, said a EP press release

Bulgarian MEP Filiz Hyusmenova (ALDE, MRF) urged the EC to adopt a firm stand as different treatment of EU citizens is unacceptable. Mariya Gabriel (EPP, GERB) talked of an impression of different classes of EU citizens. Momchil Nekov (BSP, S&D) noted that in a month the EC will put out an assessment of how Bulgaria observes the rule of law, while it fails to comply with it. Andrey Kovatchev (EPP, GERB) asked why there should be legislation, if EC doesn't comply with it.