After three years of negotiations with the Commission and the
Parliament, the European Union Council changed the visa regulation, and
included the suspending and reciprocity mechanisms.
According to this decisions, when one member country faces special circumstances from citizens of other countries, who create an emergency situation, then this state can ask the Commission to suspend the free movement for a short time for the citizens of the problematic country.
The special circumstances are: an bigger number of illegal emigrants; unfounded asylum requests or refused repatriation requests than the six months of one year ago.
The mechanism will be used as last resort and not automatically based only on the complaint of the member country. The situation will be assessed by the Commission, which will take in consideration the consequences for the foreign policies of the European Union with the problematic country, before approving an implementation act for the suspension of the free movement.
These measures were asked by the member countries on the Council of November 2010, when the European Union lifted the visa regime for Albania and Bosnia, after they saw a huge number of asylum seekers from Macedonia and Serbia.
The reciprocity mechanism is mostly related to United States of America and Canada, if they apply visas to or some European Union member countries. Excluding the UK and Ireland, the regulation is applicable for the Schengen are and enters in effect 20 days after it is announced.
Prepared by: Arta Tozaj
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