EU Plans To Suspend Visa Travel Agreement With Russia

European Union foreign ministers are set to approve a suspension of its visa facilitation agreement with Moscow this week, according to reports.

The bloc’s attempts to curb the number of travel permits issued comes amid threats from some eastern member states to unilaterally close their borders to Russian tourists.

The Czech Republic and Poland have already axed visas for Russian tourists, an action Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky called for.

But others have continued to grant the travel documents under the Schengen free-movement agreement.

The Financial Times reports ministers to plan to give political support to suspending the EU-Russia visa facilitation at a two-day meeting in Prague starting on Tuesday.

One of three senior EU officials involved in the talks who spoke to the Financial Times said: “It is inappropriate for Russian tourists to stroll in our cities, on our marinas.

“We have to send a signal to the Russian population that this war is not OK, it is not acceptable.”

Parts of the 2007 deal relating to the free movement of government officials and businessmen were suspended in February.

A wider suspension would remove preferential treatment for Russians when applying for all EU visas, requiring more documents, making them more expensive, and significantly increasing waiting times.

“We are in an exceptional situation and it requires exceptional steps. We want to go beyond suspending the visa facilitation,” the senior EU official added.

Germany is among the countries that have cautioned against an outright ban.

Finland, Poland, and the Baltic countries, which border Russia, have suggested they are prepared to stop allowing Russians with tourist visas to enter their territories.

Another told the paper that before the end of the year the bloc aimed to go further than ending the agreement, which would remove the current preferential treatment for Russian citizens when they are applying for any kind of EU visa.