Communication from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament – Implementation and development of the common visa policy to spur growth in the EU

In light of the Declaration of the 4th T20 meeting held in Mérida, Mexico, on 16 May 2012 and endorsed by G20 Ministers, this is the occasion to consider the economic impact of visa policy on the wider EU economy, and in particular on tourism, and to explore how this can be taken into account to ensure greater coherence with the growth objectives of the Europe2020 strategy.

A smarter visa policy should continue to provide security to our external borders and the good functioning of the Schengen area whilst at the same time facilitate travel opportunities for legitimate travellers, including tourists. A lot can be achieved already within the present legal framework of the Visa Code.

Given the current economic downturn we should strive to increase tourist flows to Europe. The US, for example, although very security sensitive has already recognised the potential economic gains from visa facilitation and has enacted recently a national strategy in this regard. In the EU we have recently had calls from the Ministers of Tourism of Italy, Ireland as well as German authorities for visa facilitation measures to be undertaken.

This paper is meant to initiate such a debate at EU level. First, it identifies certain shortcomings in the implementation of current procedures and explores initiatives that could be envisaged to ensure an optimised implementation of the Visa Code. Second, it also suggests some ideas towards future amendments of the visa rules that should be further explored.

EUR-Lex: COM(2012)649: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2012:649:FIN

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