Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 listing the third countries whose nationals must be in possession of visas when crossing the external borders and those whose nationals are exempt from that requirement (revision of the suspension mechanism)

Council Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 lists the third countries whose nationals must be in possession of a visa when crossing the external borders of the Member States and those whose nationals are exempt from that requirement. Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 is applied by all Member States – with the exception of Ireland and the United Kingdom – and also by Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The Regulation is part of the EU's common visa policy for short stays of up to 90 days in any 180-day period.

Following the visa liberalisation decisions for the Western Balkans countries, the Commission proposed in 2011 to establish a "visa safeguard clause" in Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 which would allow for the temporary suspension of the visa exemption for the nationals of a third country for a short period of time, as a matter of urgency and on the basis of well-defined criteria, to solve possible difficulties faced by one or several Member States in case of sudden and substantial increase of irregular migration, unfounded asylum applications or rejected readmission applications submitted by a Member State to the third country concerned.

On 11 December 2013, the European Parliament and the Council adopted Regulation (EU) No 1289/2013, which amended Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 by introducing the so-called "suspension mechanism" and modifying the existing reciprocity mechanism. This suspension mechanism allows the temporary suspension of the visa exemption for nationals of a third country in certain emergency situations, as a last resort. It can be triggered by any Member State by notifying the Commission that it is confronted, over a six-month period, in comparison with the same period in the previous year or with the last six months prior to the visa liberalisation of that country, with circumstances leading to an emergency situation which the Member State in question cannot remedy on its own.

In the context of the current migratory situation in the European Union and of the successful conclusion of several visa liberalisation dialogues with neighbouring countries, several Member States have questioned whether the existing visa suspension mechanism provides for the necessary flexibility to act in certain situations of urgency. Taking into account the Commission's recent proposals for visa liberalisation of Georgia, Ukraine, Turkey and Kosovo and the recent discussions with Member States, the Commission has decided to present a proposal to amend Regulation (EC) No 539/2001 to revise the current suspension mechanism.

The main objective is to strengthen the suspension mechanism by making it easier for Member States to notify circumstances leading to a possible suspension and by enabling the Commission to trigger the mechanism on its own initiative. In particular, the use of the mechanism should be facilitated by shortening reference periods and deadlines allowing for a faster procedure and by extending the possible grounds of suspension, which should include a substantial increase in the number of rejected readmission applications for third-country nationals having transited through that third country, where a readmission agreement concluded by the Union or a Member State and the third country concerned provides for such a readmission obligation. The Commission should also be able to trigger the mechanism in case the third country fails to cooperate on readmission, in particular where a readmission agreement has been concluded between that third country and the Union.

EUR-Lex: COM(2016)290: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2016:290:FIN

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