Rules of Brussels’ parity
EU visa fee may double
The cost of entry visas for foreigners traveling to EU member states is to double, according to a decision recently approved by justice and interior ministers of the 25 EU member states. The increase in the visa fee is planned for next year, when nonresidents will have to pay 60 euros to have their entry visa application processed.
Brussels has attributed the planned fee increase to the need to switch to more advanced fraud- proof documents for crossing the EU border. EU representatives believe that the additional 25 euros per visa will make it possible to create a financial groundwork for the development and introduction of a new biometric visa that will be launched next year.
Some countries are already experimenting with such documents. Already last year France started issuing biometric visas to nationals of Belarus, Mali, Sri Lanka, the US, China, Algeria, Switzerland, and Congo. The experiment is designed to combat document fraud, like the use of fake external passports. The procedure for collecting biometric data is quite complex. Visa applicants are photographed, and the fingerprints of all 10 fingers are scanned into a special inkless device. The data is recorded on an electronic chip that is inserted into a card resembling a credit card, which is then pasted into the passport. At a border crossing, a border official checks the card against the chip. At the same time the passport holder’s index finger is scanned. It appears that this experiment will soon become a customary, although somewhat unpleasant, visa procedure.
Meanwhile, EU officials are trying to reassure foreigners that the fee increase will not affect all categories of citizens. For example, a “special attitude” approach will be used with respect to students and scholars to enable them to continue their trips without overly depleting their wallets.
Franco Frattini, European Commissioner for Justice, Freedom, and Security, has urged all EU member states not to make any exceptions in their foreign visa policies on a bilateral level. This directly concerns Ukraine, since several EU countries, primarily Poland, are issuing free visas to Ukrainian citizens. Frattini believes that preferences of this kind will hinder efforts aimed at working out a single European visa policy. “If there is shared political will for special conditions for issuing visas to citizens of other countries, Ukraine, for example, of course I will not object, but I am certain that there should be a common European approach to conducting the visa policy, and in no case should it be a bilateral approach,” Frattini emphasized. The EU is now holding talks to sign special agreements on a simplified visa regime with Ukraine and Russia. Frattini does not rule out that similar agreements may be reached with the Balkan states.
Frattini’s statement leaves many questions unanswered. EU ministers will be meeting again in the upcoming months to discuss the question of raising the visa fee. An entry visa now costs 35 euros.
In the meantime, this week we may learn to what extent the EU’s visa developments will affect Ukraine. On March 3 Kyiv will host a meeting of ministers from Ukraine and the EU Three (Britain, France, and Germany), during which Ukraine hopes to negotiate a simplified visa regime with Brussels. What would this mean? Ukraine’s diplomats hope that Ukrainian visa applicants will receive an explanation when their application is rejected and that our citizens will be interviewed not by Ukrainian employees of consulates and embassies but by citizens of those countries represented by those consulates and embassies. Certain categories of Ukrainian citizens, particularly journalists and businessmen, would receive long-term visas for five years, while students, teachers, and scholars would be able to obtain one-year visas.
Last year Ukraine allowed visa-free travel for EU citizens. Brussels received this news quite cordially and responded by stepping up talks to simplify the visa regime for Ukrainians. Kyiv abolished all visas for EU citizens, for the first time relinquishing the principle of parity, which Ukrainian consulates honored before the change of power in Ukraine. According to this principle, Ukraine would introduce a simplified visa regime in response to a similar initiative of another country. Apparently, this was Ukraine’s way of trying not only to become more open to other Europeans, but making Europe more accessible to Ukrainians. So far there has been little success.
