Hong Kong citizens’ EU access at risk

Date: 26/06/1997

CONFUSION over the status of Hong Kong nationals wishing to visit the EU after the territory returns to Chinese rule next week has once again highlighted the problems member states face in agreeing on a common approach to visa policy.

The dispute centres on a 1995 regulation laying down a list of countries whose nationals must possess a visa to visit any EU country.

China is on the list and Hong Kong is not, so it is currently up to individual governments to decide whether or not Hong Kong nationals need a visa.

But member states disagree over their status after the hand-over from London to Beijing.

While the Chinese government has confirmed that Hong Kong will remain a Special Administrative Region (SAR), some member states argue it will effectively become part of China and should therefore be on the list.

Others, led by the UK, say Hong Kong citizens with SAR passports should not face undue hindrance when travelling around the Union. “It is important that Hong Kong is able to start off on a new footing with its new status. Granting visa-free status is one way of encouraging closer links between the EU and Hong Kong,” said a British official.

The issue has become even more confused following a European Court of Justice ruling earlier this month that the common visa regulation is illegal because MEPs were not adequately consulted when the Council of Ministers made changes to the list originally proposed.

“The Parliament's objection was that the revisions made by the Council were so substantial that the Parliament should have be re-consulted,” said a legal expert.

In order to avoid a 'policy vacuum', the ECJ said the current list should remain in force until a new regulation could be approved under the correct legal procedure. Theoretically, this should not prove unduly difficult, given that the Court's objection to the regulation was procedural, based on the way it was passed rather than its content.

But it may not be that simple. When the rule was approved in 1995, agreement on the list required unanimity. But the Maastricht Treaty article upon which it was based stated that such decisions would be taken by qualified majority vote from 1 January 1996 onwards.

When the list is resubmitted, some member states may face the prospect of being obliged to demand visas from some countries against their will.