Brussels warns for reimposing visa regime

The Commission warns for a temporary return of the visa regime through the so called safety clause, which can be applied in emergency cases or when one or some EU member countries complain for high flux of emigrants or fake asylum seekers from a given state that benefits from the visa liberalization.

“This is a new mechanism that we propose. We hope that this will be a last resort measure. If nothing else has helped, then we can consider using this safety clause. It hasn’t been used yet because it hasn’t existed”, declared the vice Cheif of Visa Policy Unit at the European Commission, Diederik Paalman.

The draft of the European Commission considers as alarming the 50% increase in the last 6 months of refused asylum seekers and citizens who illegally reside in an EU member countries, compared to the first half of the year.

This logic has not found the support of the social-democrats and liberals, but there is the support of the European Right Wing Party, which governs most of the EU member countries.

“This proposal of the Commission is not aimed at any particular country, not Albania or any other Western Balkan country. This is a very important thing to understand. This is generic proposal from the Commission, which will enable the Commission and the member states to re-impose the visa obligation in case of a sudden influx of asylum seekers, illegal emigrants or other criteria which you can find in the proposal. Now, in principle, the Commission proposes to do this by percentages, because this allows for a certain bureaucratic procedure which gives us the flexibility to move fast in case of emergent situations”, Diederik Paalman added.

The usage of this percentage disfavors countries such as Albania, which have a relatively smaller number of asylum seekers, but that result with a higher percentage than other countries of the region.

In cases of abuses, through the safety clause, the Commission could re-impose the visa regime for six months, after the information will be received by the diplomatic service FRONTEX and European asylum agencies.

This period could be repeated, and when it ends, the Commission will review if the regime will eventually be liberalized or the state will be included in the EU black list.

The Commission of Interior Matters, Freedom and Safety will give its opinion on November 29th and the EMPs will vote it through a plenary session in the beginning of 2012.

Prepare by: Arta Tozaj

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