US set to drop visa demands for more EU member states

The US is expected to drop its visa requirements for a number of EU states this year, including Greece, Cyprus, Malta, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Estonia.

Greece is expected to have visa restrictions lifted as soon as February or March, European diplomats based in Washington said. The other states hope to join before the end of the year.

But Poland, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Romania are not expected to be included in this year’s wave of expansion of the US visa-waiver programme.

The issue is a controversial one since tourists and business travellers with machine-readable passports from 15 EU states (Slovenia and all the pre-2004 states except Greece) do not need visas to enter the US. The remaining 12 states and the European Commission have complained, asking the US to treat all EU countries the same.

To address these criticisms, US Congress passed legislation last summer which would make it easier for states to join the visa-waiver programme, as it changed the permissible refusal rate for US business and tourist visas from 3% to 10%.

US figures for the year to the end of September 2007 show Greece had a visa refusal rate of 1.6% and it is expected to be included in the visa-waiver programme imminently.

Other states below or close to the 10% threshold include Cyprus (1.8%), Malta (2.7%), Estonia (4%), Czech Republic (6.7%) and Hungary (10.3%). These states hope to join the visa waiver programme before the end of 2008 but must wait for two new security systems, set down in last year’s legislation, to be in place first.

European diplomats in Washington explained that memoranda of understanding are being negotiated with the US to work out the detail for these states to join the programme.

"Greece is expected to be admitted next month, February, but perhaps March. Talks are ongoing with the US Department of Homeland Security and there is a chance for everyone under the 10% threshold [to join the programme]," said one diplomat.

Hungary’s ambassador to the US, Ferenc Somogyi, said that he was "realistically optimistic" that his country would be able to join the visa-waiver programme this year. "There is a very strong Hungarian expectation to join the programme soon given our support for the US in Iraq and Afghanistan," he said. US experts were expected in Budapest soon to finalise the memorandum of understanding with Hungary, he said. Somogyi said that he was also encouraged by Congress’s approval in December of money to run the new security systems which new entrants to the programme must use.

Väino Reinart, Estonia’s ambassador to the US, struck a similarly optimistic note. "We are working closely together with the US authorities to be able to join the visa-waiver programme by the end of 2008. Our firm conviction is that Estonia is able to meet the established criteria by that time," he said.

Three of the remaining EU states are well over the 10% threshold, including Poland (25.2%), Romania (37.7%) and Bulgaria (14.3%). But it is unclear whether the US authorities will include Slovakia (12%), Latvia (11.8%) and Lithuania (12.9%) in this year’s expansion since their figures are not so far off and the legislation does allow flexibility if other criteria are met.

The US is expected to drop its visa requirements for a number of EU states this year, including Greece, Cyprus, Malta, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Estonia.