Visa facilitation talks under pressure
The strong pressure from several key EU member states to revise the Schengen Treaty makes it increasingly unlikely for Russia to get a quick introduction of visa-free traveling with the Union, a Russian analyst says.
Both France and Italy have called for a revision of the treaty after waves of immigrants from North Africa and the Middle East have made it into their countries. The European Commission has partly endorsed the two country’s request for treaty changes and now opens up for the temporary erection of national border regulations for countries faced with “exceptional circumstances”.
The negative focus on the Schengen Treaty might eventually affect also EU-Russian relations. Russia is pushing hard for a deal on visa-free traveling with the EU and has managed to get the issue high on the bilateral agenda. These talks could now become increasingly complicated, foreign policy expert Yevgeny Minchenko argues in a comment in newspaper Vedomosti.
-It would be highly naïve to believe in an abolishment of the visa regime between the EU and Russia in the near future, Yevgeny Minchenko writes. He maintains that the EU will be highly reluctant to open the border to Russia and expose the member states to immigration from unstable countries in Central Asia. Minchenko is Vice President of the Russian Association on Public Relation and leader of the Committee on Russian Image-building.
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The new waves of immigration from North Africa and the Middle East come after a period of increasingly negative focus on the liberal travelling rules in several EU member countries. This frustration is likely to make it harder also for the new EU member countries Bulgaria and Romania to be included in the Schengen zone, a top political priority in both of the countries.
