Visa ‘blacklist’ dispute drags on

Date: 01/10/1998

By Simon Coss

A CONTINUING dispute between EU governments and the European Parliament is hindering efforts by Romania and Bulgaria to have their citizens removed from the Union's visa 'blacklist'.

The two central and eastern European countries, which are both bidding for EU membership, currently feature on the list of countries whose nationals must obtain visas before entering the Union.

Both argue that they should be removed as soon as possible and say current negotiations between the EU's institutions on redrafting the relevant law would provide the perfect opportunity to do this.

But negotiations on updating the 1995 legislation which includes the blacklist are not going well. Union ambassadors were due to discuss the issue once again last week, but the item was dropped from the agenda of their regular meeting at the last minute.

“This is certainly one of the most poisoned points of the whole debate,” admitted one European Commission insider.

The Parliament is openly supporting Romania and Bulgaria in their campaign to be taken off the visa register, and many Commission officials have privately indicated that they think Sofia and Bucharest have a good case.

But the Council of Ministers remains divided over the issue. Several governments have raised concerns over the two countries' ability to protect their borders against illegal immigration and say the list should remain unchanged.

“The European Parliament and many Commission officials want to exclude Bulgaria and Romania for political reasons, but we want to leave them in,” said one Council insider.

The European Court of Justice ruled in June 1997 that the EU's visa law would have to be redrafted because the Commission and Council had failed to give MEPs sufficient information when the original legislation was being drawn up.

When they delivered their ruling, judges at the Luxembourg-based Court said the existing regulation could remain in place temporarily to avoid a legal vacuum. But they ordered the Commission and Council to produce new legislation as soon as possible. Since then, however, progress has not been swift.

The situation has left the two applicant states angry and confused over their position. Both argue they have made improvements in their border-control regimes and say this progress should be rewarded. The Romanians have indicated that in the short term they would be happy to be included on an EU 'grey list' of countries. This would mean that individual member states would be able to decide whether or not to demand a visa from Romanian citizens.