European affairs ministers gave the go ahead this week to new rules that will make it easier to suspend the right to visa-free travel for non-EU countries under certain circumstances.
The EU currently has a visa-free regime with 61 countries, plus Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan. Citizens from these countries can enter the Schengen area without a visa and stay for up to 90 days within a 180-day period.
Among countries included in the scheme, there are Albania, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Nicaragua, New Zealand, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates.
Since 2013, a suspension mechanism is in place allowing member states to temporarily suspend the visa exemption to address possible abuses. In 2023, the Commission proposed to update the rules to reflect new security threats.
Following the European Parliament approval in October, the EU Council agreed new rules on Monday that will enable the EU to revoke the visa-free status to countries that “do not align with the EU’s visa policy”, in other words those that allow third country nationals to arrive legally on their territory and then enter EU countries irregularly.
Visa-free status would also be revoked for countries that run citizenship by investment schemes or those that are responsible for human rights violations or carry out “hostile acts” against EU member states “with the aim of destabilising or undermining society or institutions which are key for the public policy and internal security”.
This could include cyber operations, economic espionage or the sabotage of critical infrastructure.
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MEP Matjaž Nemec, lead negotiator on the file for the European Parliament, said in October: “Europe remains the world’s most visited continent by tourists and business travellers alike, and our visa policy is therefore one of our strongest foreign policy tools.
“With a modernised suspension mechanism, the EU will be able to suspend visa-free travel in the case of serious human rights violations, and can target suspensions at government officials or other groups.”
The visa-free regime can be suspended first temporarily and then permanently. Ministers agreed that the initial suspension will increase from the current 9 to 12 months, which can then be extended by a further 24 months before permanent revocation.
The visa-free regime can also be suspended if there is a “rise in serious crimes” committed by nationals from the country concerned, and “substantial increases” in unsuccessful asylum applications, entry refusals or numbers of people overstaying their visas (the threshold has been lowered to 30 per cent compared to the previous 50 per cent).
The new rules will become effective 20 days after their publication in the EU’s Official Journal and will be directly applicable in EU member states.
Up until now, the EU’s visa-free travel agreements have been suspended only for Russia, Belarus and the South Pacific Ocean state of Vanuatu.
The decision to revoke the visa exemption for Vanuatu was made in December 2024 because the country runs an investor citizenship scheme that allowed third-country nationals who would otherwise be required to have a visa to enter the EU to receive Vanuatu citizenship in exchange for an investment, thereby also obtaining visa-free access to the EU.
