European authorities are concerned about the sudden increase in the number of illegal immigrants. After the granting of citizenship to third-country investors, problems arose due to the entry of organized crime agents into the EU, seeking money laundering and corruption.
The EU wants to develop the mechanism for stopping the visa-free regime for third countries. This was reported to the European Commission (EC) on 30 May.
This mechanism is described in Article 8 of the EU Visa Regulation and its main purpose is to provide a temporary suspension of visa-free travel in the event of a sudden and serious increase in illegal immigration or community safety risks.
“The Commission will increase its oversight on visa policy harmonization and present a comprehensive report that paves the way for a legislative proposal to change the visa suspension mechanism,” EC President Ursula von der Leyen wrote in a letter to the European Council. said.
As European authorities have pointed out, the visa-free regime brings tangible economic, social and cultural benefits to European bloc countries and third countries.
Despite this, such a regime has recently shown migration difficulties and security problems. The Commission stressed that inconsistency with EU visa policy makes a country with a visa-free regime a hub for illegal immigrants.
“This was the case of visa-free entry to the Western Balkans by citizens of countries requiring a visa for the EU. This resulted in an increase in the number of illegal entries in 2022. The EC and its partners in the Western Balkans have made significant progress in harmonizing the visa regime”, – EC They gave an example.
Programs to grant European citizenship to investors in third countries also create security problems. Such investors often pose the risk of organized crime entering Europe to launder money, evade taxes and engage in corruption.
The revision of visa rules may include the following items:
- new reasons to stop visa-free travel;
- adapting thresholds for initiation of visa-free suspension;
- introducing a more efficient and flexible suspension procedure;
- Strengthening monitoring and reporting.
This fall, the EC promises to introduce a bill that would revise the visa-free suspension mechanism.
The European Union currently has a visa-free regime with 61 countries not included in the bloc. 25 countries have visa exemption agreements. Ukraine, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Georgia and Moldova were exempted from issuing visas after the visa liberalization dialogue.
Recall that the German media learned earlier how Russia helped immigrants from the Middle East to get to Europe. Refugees are sent by plane from Turkey to Russia and Belarus, and from there to the EU.
Focus He also wrote about how the United States refused to grant visas to Russian propagandists to travel as part of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s delegation to the UN Security Council meeting.
Source: Focus
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