The European Commission has turned down the demands from the European Parliament that visa should be imposed on US citizens visiting the EU countries.
While citizens of the United States can travel to the EU countries without a visa for a period of 90 days, not all EU countries enjoy reciprocity of this visa waiver programme. Citizens of Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Romania still require a visa to travel to the United States.
Members of the European Parliament last week demanded that the visa waiver programme to the EU countries be withdrawn until the United States reciprocate the visa waiver programme. This was meant to put pressure on the United States to allow the visa waiver programme for the four countries that still require a visa to enter the United States.
However, the European Union Commission on Friday, 23 October turned down the demand of the Parliament. The Commission stated that such an idea is counter-productive and will lead to the United States imposing visa requirements on all EU citizens.
According to a spokesperson of the commission, such moves “would inevitably lead to the United States to impose visa requirements on all EU citizens”.
The spokesperson further stated that Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus and Romania are making efforts to get the visa waiver programme and some of them are close to getting it. He added, “none of them has asked the commission to temporarily suspend visa-free travel for US citizens and they all agree to continue this dialogue.”
